/)     /i  r\ 


o 


ED 


MISSION  FIELDS  of 

AFRICA  and  ASIA 


^'     \    \  t     ^ 


THE  UNOCCUPIED  FIELDS 


The   UNOCCUPIED 
MISSION  FIELDS  of 

AFRICA  AND  ASIA 


BY 


SAMUEL  M.  ZWEMER,  F.R.G.S. 

SECRETARY  STUDENT  VOLUNTEER    MOVEMENT, 
MISSIONARY  TO    ARABIA 


NEW   YORK 

STUDENT  VOLUNTEER   MOVEMENT 

FOR   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

1911 


Copyright,   191 1,  by 

STUDENT  VOLUNTEER  MOVEMENT 

FOR   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

ALL    RIGHTS    RESERVED 


^0^11 


WHO   DARE,   ENDURE   AND    SUFFER   ON   THE 

BORDERMARCHES  OF  THE  KINGDOM, 

AND  ENTER  THE  UNOCCUPIED 

TERRITORY    OF 

THE  KING 


'The  night  lies  dark  upon  the  earth  and  we  have  light; 
So  many  have  to  grope  their  way,  and  we  have  sight; 
One  path  is  theirs  and  ours — of  sin  and  care, 
But  we  are  borne  along,  and  they  their  burden  bear, 
Footsore,  heart-weary,  faint  they  on  the  way. 
Mute  in  their  sorrow,  while  we  kneel  and  pray; 
Glad  are  they  of  a  stone  on  which  to  rest, 
While  we  lie  pillowed  on  the  Father's  breast. 

"Father,  why  is  it  that  these  millions  roam. 
And  guess  that  that  is  Home,  and  urge  their  way 
Is  it  enough  to  keep  the  door  ajar. 
In  hope  that  some  may  see  the  gleam  afar. 
And  guess  that  that  is  Home,  and  urge  their  way 
To  reach  it,  haply,  somehow  and  some  day? 
May  not  I  go,  and  lend  them  of  my  light? 
May  not  mine  eyes  be  unto  them  for  sight? 
May  not  the  brother-love  Thy  love  portray? 
And  news  of  Home  make  Home  less  far  away?'' 

—Rev.  R.  Wright  Hay. 


VI 


PREFACE 

The  purpose  of  this  book  is  to  give  a  survey  of  the 
extent  and  condition  of  the  wholly  unoccupied  mission 
fields  in  Africa  and  Asia  including  Malaysia,  from  the 
standpoint  of  Protestant  missions,  and  to  consider  the 
questions  that  bear  on  their  occupation. 

The  continent  of  South  America  has  not  been  included 
for  two  reasons :  the  missionary  problem  there  is  so 
largely  bound  up  with  the  condition  of  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic Church  and  has  therefore  such  special  character  that 
it  requires  specific  treatment ;  and  the  continent  as  a  whole 
with  its  unoccupied  sections  and  large  neglected  non- 
Christian  population  has  already  received  attention  in 
mission  study  text-books.  To  include  South  America 
would,  moreover,  have  been  impracticable  in  the  compass 
of  one  volume  for  use  in  study  classes. 

The  unoccupied  fields  of  the  world  are  a  new  subject 
for  consideration  and  the  data  for  an  altogether  accurate 
and  all-embracing  survey  are  not  yet  complete.  The 
entire  world-area  has  not  yet  been  wholly  covered  by  the 
tracks  of  the  explorer,  much  less  by  the  triang^lations 
of  the  surveyor  or  the  tours  of  missionaries;  nor  has 
any  kind  of  census  been  taken  in  many  of  the  great 
unoccupied  fields  of  the  world.  As  long,  therefore,  as 
geography  and  ethnography  can  only  give  estimates  and 
probabilities,  a  missionary  survey  also  can  only  deal  with 
approximate  figures.    Where  statistics  are  used,  they  are 

vii 


vm  PREFACE 

taken  in  nearly  every  case  from  the  "Statesman's  Year- 
Book"  (1910),  or  where  this  failed,  conservative  esti- 
mates were  made  from  recent  books  of  travel  and  the 
letters  of  correspondents.  For  the  rest,  the  bibliogra- 
phy gives  the  sources  of  information  and  indicates  lines 
of  further  study.  As  far  as  possible  all  the  references  and 
authorities  are  recent.  The  book  deals  with  present  con- 
ditions.    It  tells  of  things  as  they  are  to-day. 

Its  argument  can  be  briefly  expressed  as  follows:  at 
the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century  of  the  Christian 
era  and  after  more  than  a  centnry  of  Protestant  world- 
wide missions,  there  are  still  a  score  of  wholly  unoccupied 
fields  (Chapter  I)  and  many  sections  of  fields  (II),  where 
the  obstacles  and  barriers  seem  well-nigh  insuperable 
(III),  but  where  the  moral  degradation  and  spiritual 
destitution  of  the  peoples  (IV  and  V)  and  the  strategy 
involved  in  the  occupation  of  these  fields  (VI)  call  for 
heroic,  persevering,  pioneer  effort  on  wise  lines  (VII) 
with  the  sure  promise  of  ultimate  success  (VIII). 

The  careful  investigations  of  the  present  condition  of 
the  whole  non-Christian  world  carried  on  in  connection 
with  the  World  Missionary  Conference  held  at  Edin- 
burgh, 1910,  by  its  Commission  I,  together  with  the 
«mphasis  now  being  placed  upon  the  practical  interpre- 
tation of  the  Watchword  of  the  Student  Volunteer  Move- 
ment by  missionary  leaders  and  organizations,  surely 
emphasize  the  timeliness  of  this  attempted  survey. 

To  quote  from  the  findings  of  Commission  I  of  the 
Edinburgh  Conference: 

"The  unoccupied  fields  of  the  world  have  a  claim  of 
peculiar  weight  and  urgency  upon  the  attention  and  mis- 
sionary effort  of  the  Church.  In  this  twentieth  century 
of  Christian  history  there  should  be  no  unoccupied  fields. 


PREFACE  IX 

The  Giurch  is  bound  to  remedy  this  lamentable  condition 
with  the  least  possible  delay.  Some  of  these  unoccupied 
fields  are  open  to  the  Gospel,  such  as  Mongolia  and  many 
regions  of  Africa.  In  certain  fields  there  are  difficulties 
of  access  to  be  overcome.  Both  in  Africa  and  Asia 
there  are  large  regions  belonging  to  the  French  Empire 
in  which  there  are  no  Christian  missions.  There  are 
other  fields  where  political  difficulties  seem  at  present 
to  prevent  occupation,  such  as  Tibet,  Nepal,  Bhutan,  and 
Afghanistan.  But  the  closed  doors  are  few  compared 
with  the  open  doors  unentered.  It  is  the  neglected  op- 
portunities that  are  the  reproach  of  the  Church.  A  large 
proportion  of  the  unoccupied  fields  are  to  be  found  within 
the  Mohammedan  world,  not  only  in  Northern  Africa  and 
in  Western  Asia,  but  also  in  China.  Indeed,  by  far  the 
greater  part  of  the  Mohammedan  world  is  practically 
unoccupied." 

In  view  of  this  last  statement  no  apology^  is  necessary 
for  the  fact  that  the  problem  of  Islam  occupies  a  consider- 
able part  of  the  discussion  in  Chapters  lY  and  VI. 

One  other  reason  might  be  given  for  the  timeliness  of 
this  presentation.  There  is  just  now  on  the  part  of  some 
a  strange  criticism  of  the  Gospel  to  the  efifect  that  it 
lacks  virility  and  is  weak  and  flabby  for  the  rough  and 
tumble  struggle  of  every-day  life ;  that  it  does  not  appeal 
sufficiently  to  the  heroic  or  the  fighting  spirit  which  is 
so  much  needed  in  our  day.  Surely  no  one  can  study  the 
social  conditions  in  the  unoccupied  fields  of  the  world 
and  the  almost  insuperable  obstacles  which  face  those 
who  try  to  better  these  conditions  without  realizing  that 
in  the  warfare  of  Christian  missions  against  the  forces 
of  darkness  and  degradation  there  is  abundant  oppor- 
tunity  for  the  highest  heroism,  and  the  call  to  occupy 


X  PREFACE 

these  fields  is  to  the  strongest  manhood  of  the  Church. 
Here  is  "the  moral  equivalent  of  war"  which  thoughtful 
men  say  we  need  in  an  age  of  luxury  and  self-indulgence. 
If  the  unoccupied  fields  of  the  world  are  to  be  occupied 
for  Jesus  Christ  and  by  Him,  those  who  have  surrendered 
their  lives  to  His  service  and  are  willing  to  dare  and 
endure  must  enter  these  fields.  The  book  has  therefore 
its  special  message  to  student  volunteers. 


Samuel  M.  Zwemer. 


On  board  S.  S.  Konig  Albert, 
September  15,  1910 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER    I 
THE  HEART  OF  TWO  CONTINENTS 

Once  the  whole  world  unoccupied — Paul's  ambition — Carcjrs 
missionary  program — The  situation  to-day — Two-fold  division  of 
the  unoccupied  fields— Greater  and  smaller  areas — The  heart  of 
two  continents— Central  Asia  and  Central  Africa— The  roof  of 
the  world— The  character  of  the  people — The  variety  of  races 
and  of  environment— In  Central  Asia — The  character  of  the 
Afghan— The  Arab— The  Tibetan— Men  and  women— The 
Pagan  races  of  Africa— Afghanistan — Baluchistan— Chinese 
Turkistan— Its  resources— Routes  of  travel— Russia  in  Cen- 
tral Asia — Its  large  cities — Commerce — Railways — Siberia — 
Mongolia— Tibet-Nepal  and  BhuUn— French  Indo-China— 
Area  and  population — Arabia — Its  neglected  provinces — Africa — 
The  Senegal  District— Northern  Nigeria— Somaliland  and  Abys- 
sinia— Summary  of  the  situation — Lines  on  Gordon's  Statue. 

Paie  I 

CHAPTER    II 
SMALLER  AREAS  AND  UNREACHED  MILLIONS 

Malaysia— Banka  and  Billiton— The  Malay  States— Western 
Sumatra — The  Barbary  States — Aggregate  populations  un- 
touched— Uncultivated  sections  in  unoccupied  fields — Their 
importance — Certain  difficulties  in  dealing  with  these  areas — 
Mission  comity — Concentration  or  dififusion — Japan  an  example 
— Distribution  of  forces  in  Japan — Neglected  districts — Table — 
Unoccupied  fields  in  India— Their  location— United  Provinces — 
Central     India— Bhopal    Agency— Conditions    in    Bengal— Table 


Xll  CONTENTS 

— Sindh — China  and  its  evangelization — Growth  of  one  mission — 
The  unfinished  task  in  China — Cities  without  missionaries — 
Honan  Province — The  Edinburgh  Conference  report  on  China 
— The  Moslems  of  China — Prayer  for  the  unoccupied  fields. 

Page  iZ 

CHAPTER   III 
WHY   STILL  UNOCCUPIED 

Lack  of  vision  and  faith — Lack  of  men — External  hindrances  and 
difficulties — The  remaining  obstacles  naturally  great — Physical, 
political  and  religious  barriers — Livingstone's  saying — Unex- 
plored sections  of  Africa — Central  Borneo — Arabia — The  largest 
unexplored  area  of  the  world — Central  Asia  and  its  geographical 
problems — Hardships  of  climate  and  difficulties  of  communica- 
tion— In  Tibet — In  Papua — In  Afghanistan — In  Africa — How  to 
meet  these  difficulties — Bishop  Bompas'  testimony — Dr.  North- 
cote  Deck — Difficulties  of  climate  and  health  disappearing — 
Political  opposition — In  India — French  Colonial  Africa — British 
Government  in  regard  to  Islam — Russia — Moslem  governments — 
Afghanistan — The  intricacy  of  the  situation  in  this  field — 
Religious  intolerance — Fanaticism  in  the  Sahara — Arabia — Atjch 
—Abyssinia — Somaliland — Intolerant  Mecca — Christians  at  Mecca 
— Hejaz  Railway — The  great  closed  land,  Tibet — Breaking  down 
of  barriers — The  Amir's  speech  at  Lahore — Dr.  Kumm's  journey 
— Col.  Wingate's  testimony — God  the  Opener. Page  59 

CHAPTEI    IV 
SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

The  present  emphasis  in  missions — The  sociological  problem — 
The  unity  of  the  race — Christian  civilization  and  the  non-Chris- 
tian environment. — The  city  problem — If  ours  were  a  heathen 
city — Dr.  Dennis'  classification  of  the  social  evils  of  the  non- 
Christian  world — The  general  situation — Paul's  indictment — 
Present  social  conditions  in  the  Dark  Continent — The  slave  trade 
and  its  horrors — Lack  of  economic  progress — Tibet  needs  the 
gospel  of  soap — The  Mongols — Lack  of  sanitation  in  the  great 
cities   of   Central   Asia — No   settled   governments-Brigandage — 


•  •• 


CONTENTS  Xlll 

Famine  and  plague — Social  evils — Ignorance  and  superstition — 
Instances  of  the  latter  in  Persia  and  Afghanistan — The  Amirs 
charm — Amulets  and  their  use — Moslem  superstition — Native 
quackery  in  Kordofan — Witch  doctors — Treatment  of  the  sick — 
Crude  surgery — Afghan  dentistry — The  treatment  of  criminals; 
cruel  punishment  and  tortures — Cannibalism  in  Malaysia  and  in 
Africa — Instances  of  cruelty  in  Afghanistan — Prison  life — Pun- 
ishment in  Tibet — Disposal  of  the  dead — The  scavengers  of  Lhasa 
— The  Buddhist  Sheol — Moral  degradation — The  condition  of 
women  and  children  in  Afghanistan;  in  Central  Asia — The  cry 
of  the  children  of  Kashgar — The  pilgrim  cities  centres  of  immor- 
ality— Temporary  marriages  at  Mecca — The  condition  of  woman- 
hood in  non-Christian  world — Dr.  Kumm's  testimony  regarding 
the  Sudan — Women  in  Afghanistan — The  women  of  Tibet — Con- 
clusion— The  Gospel  the  only  hope  for  social  progress  ..  .Page  95 

CHAPTER    V 
RELIGIOUS   CONDITIONS 

No  part  of  the  world  without  religion — Herbert  Spencer — The 
capacity  for  religion  universal — Major  Leonard's  testimony — The 
effect  of  civilization  without  the  Gospel — In  Papua — The  Bedouin 
of  Arabia — The  non-Christian  religions  have  all  had  their  trial 
and  failed — "By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them" — Islam  in 
Arabia — Palgrave's  testimooy — Vambery — Lamaism  in  Tibet — 
Its  character — Ritual — Prayer — Wheels  and  their  use — A  land 
swarming  with  priests — Spiritual  ignorance  and  moral  degrada- 
tion— Miss  Marston  on  Buddhism — Animism  and  Fetichism  in 
the  pagan  world — Cannibalism  and  its  sacrificial  significance — 
Warneck  on  the  hopelessness  of  heathenism — The  evangeliza- 
tion of  pagan  Africa  means  the  creation  of  a  new  civilization — 
Untruthfulness  and  distrust  in  the  animistic  world — Special  char- 
acteristics common  to  all  the  non-Christian  religions — Degrading 
conceptions  of  God — Religious  tyranny — Scandalous  lives  of  the 
religious  leaders — The  gods  of  Africa — The  pagans  of  Siberia — 
Their  horse  sacrifice — Superstition  in  Annam — Life  in  a  Buddhist 
monastery — The  Lamas  of  Tibet — Their  ignorance  and  debasing 
customs — Their  power  over  the  people — The  Dalai  Lama — The 
immurinj;  of  monks — Islam  and  its  monotheism — Schlcgel's  char- 


Xhr  CONTENTS 

actcrization— The  religious  leaders  of  Islam— Their  spirit  and 
their  power— In  Afghanistan— In  Egypt— The  pagan  priesthood 
in  Malaysia— In  Kordo fan— Among  the  Buriats — The  unoccupied 
fields  of  the  world  still  living  in  the  era  B.C.— The  prayer  of 
Aiipb. Page  133 

cBArm  vx 

STRATEGIC  ZMPOSTANCE 

Why  should  they  be  occupied? — Reasons  in  general  and  in  par- 
ticular—Destitution and  neglect  are  the  strongest  possible  argu- 
ments for  their  occupation — Dying  races  need  the  Gospel — Virile 
races  must  be  won— All  races  belong  to  God— Bishop  Carpenter's 
words — Christ's  command  universal — The  strategy  of  the  appar- 
ently insignificant — Unrecognized  possibilities — The  occupation  of 
these  fields  and  the  second  coming  of  Jesus  Christ — The  glory 
of  God  at  stake — Some  fields  now  unoccupied  were  once  Christian 
—Regaining  lost  territory  in  Central  Asia— North  Africa— Arabia 
—The  veiled  Tuaregs— Special  reasons  in  addition  to  these  gen- 
eral reasons — Strategic  races  in  Africa — The  Moslems  of  China — 
Those  in  Russia— Missionary  Hogberg  on  the  strategy  of  Central 
Asia— Robert  Clark — The  importance  of  Afghanistan— Russian 
advance  in  Central  Asia— The  danger  of  neglected  lands— Kafir- 
istan  as  an  example  of  lost  opportunity — The  urgency  because 
of  railway  expansion  especially  in  Africa  and  Central  Asia— The 
situation  in  Chinese  Turkistan — Why  Arabia  should  be  occupied 
—Railways  and  politics — The  Arabic  language  and  its  influence— 
The  Arab  race— These  arc  strategic  times — The  crucial  problem 
to-day  in  Africa — Islam  or  Christianity — Testimony  of  mission- 
ary leaders— Bishop  Tucker— Dr.  Weston  of  Zanzibar— Dr.  Hol- 
land of  Baluchistan— Dr.  Miller  of  Nigeria— Gairdner  from 
Cairo — The  present  Moslem  advance  in  Africa — Its  direction — 
Its  character— Forces  which  favor  its  spread— Higher  culture- 
Colonial  governments — Low  moral  standards — No  caste — Because 
of  the  march  of  civilization  we  must  preoccupy  these  fields- 
Afghanistan  an  example Page  153 


CONTENTS  XV 

CHAPTER  VII 
THE  PIONEER  AND   HIS  TASK 

The  reproach  of  long  neglect — Factors  in  the  problem  of  occu- 
pation— Concentration  or  diffusion — The  character  of  the  man 
and  the  nature  of  his  mission — The  pioneer  in  a  class  by  himself — 
Kipling's  lines  a  challenge — The  witness  of  Chalmers  and  Living- 
stone— The  kind  of  man  needed — Major  General  Haig's  testi- 
mony— Hardships  in  Tibet — The  pioneer  missionary  a  soldier — 
He  needs  a  sense  of  humor — This  fact  illustrated  from  Arabia 
and  Baluchistan — Becoming  all  things  to  all  men — The  Bishop 
of  Lebombo — He  must  be  a  man  with  a  message — The  Arab 
who  recognized  Christ — How  Dr.  Rijnhart  interpreted  the  parable 
of  the  good  Samaritan — The  medical  missionary  and  his  power — 
Work  for  the  scholar  and  the  linguist  in  the  unoccupied  fields — 
Languages  without  the  gospel — The  Gospel  in  Laotian — The  dis- 
tribution of  the  Scriptures  in  Siberia — The  Bible  knows  no  fron- 
tiers— The  organization  of  a  pioneer  mission — Lessons  to  be 
learned  from  the  past — The  need  of  thorough  preparation — Pru- 
dence and  common  sense  needed — Unwise  methods — Climate 
and  health — The  Apostle  Paul  our  example — The  pioneer  mis- 
sionary must  be  willing  to  endure  hardship — The  call  for  single 
men— Colonel  Wingate's  words — On  the  choice  of  a  location — 
A  page  from  the  story  of  the  Arabian  mission — How  stations  were 
selected  and  occupied — Attempts  to  enter  Tibet  and  the  present 
opportunity — Central  Asia  and  the  frontier  of  India — How  to 
occupy  Russian  and  Chinese  Turkistan — The  unoccupied  fields 
of  Africa — History  of  attempts  to  enter  the  Sudan — The  price  of 
success — We  must  march  to  the  song  of  the  dead Page  183 

CHAPTER  VIII 
THE  GLORY  OF  THE  IMPOSSIBLE 

The  passion  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  for  exploration — Sir  Ernest 
Shackleton  and  the  call  of  the  north — Sven  Hedin — Dr.  Susie 
Rijnhart — Her  plea  for  Tibet — The  little  lone  grave — Tertullian's 
words — "I  believe  because  it  is  impossible" — The  Afghan  martyr 
—"Who    follows    in    His    train?" — The    call    to    sacrifice — With 


Xvi  CONTENTS 

Christ  the  impossible  becomes  possible — Missions  are  warfare 
Raymund  Lull's  words — The  call  to  loneliness — Inverted  home- 
sickness— The  passion  of  the  homeless  Christ— The  Song  of  the 
Foreloper — The  ordination  of  the  pierced  hands — Bishop  French, 
of  Lahore,  and  his  spirit— Paul's  ambition— Why  the  early  Chris- 
tians evangelized  the  Roman  Empire— The  difficulty  of  the  task 
is  the  inspiration— Neesima—Hogberg—Judson— The  watchword 
of  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement— Its  present-day  interpreta- 
tion—The unoccupied  field  and  the  unoccupied  life— Phillips 
Brooks'  challenge— The  last  will  and  testament  of  David  Living- 
stone  P^S^  215 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


The  Khaibar  Pass Frontispiece 

FACING 
PAGB 

Statue  of  Gordon 30 

Heathen  Battaks  of  Sumatra 34 

Kairwan,  Tunis 42 

The  Grand  Shereef  of  Mecca 6\ 

Caravan  Crossing  the  Sahara 70 

Lamas  from  Sikkim ^ 

Types  from   Baluchistan 96 

Medical  Charms  from  Kordofan 104 

Buddhist  Leader  from  Bhutan 130 

Symbols  of  Lamaism  and  Buddhism 132 

Idols  from  New  Guinea 136 

The  Dalai   Lama  of  Tibet 142 

The  Veiled  Men  of  Tuareg 158 

Woman  and  Children,  Timbuctu 158 

A  Sky-Scraper  in  Arabia 166 

Sudan  Express  Advertisement 166 

A  Woman  of  Nepal 202 

El-Wad,  in  Southern  Algeria 220 

Lhasa,  the  Capital  of  Tibet 224 


MAPS 

Central  Asia 10 

Tibet    20 

Southwest  Africa 26 

Sumatra  and  Lndo-China z^ 

Province  of  Honan.  China 51 

Arabia 84 

Afghanistan  and  Baluchistan 112 

Malaysia  126 

Central  Sudan 176 

Abyssinia  and  Somaliland 210 

xvii 


THE  HE.\RT  OF  TWO  CONTINENTS 


"At  the  funeral  of  the  great  Duke  of  Wellington  it  was  con- 
sidered to  be  a  mark  of  solemn  respect  that  the  obsequies  should 
bo  attended  by  one  soldier  from  every  part  of  the  regiments  of 
the  British  Army,  and  it  is  a  part  of  the  Saviour's  glory  that  one 
jewel  be  gathered  to  His  crown  from  every  tribe  of  the  lost 
human  race.  It  is  an  honor  to  secure  for  our  Lord  one  such  jewel 
from  even  the  remotest  tribe." 

— Bishop  William  Carpenter  Bompas. 

"In  addition  to  the  magnitude  of  the  need,  the  unoccupied  fields 
have  an  interest  and  importance  peculiarly  their  own  on  the 
score  of  difficulty  of  access.  These  fields  are  the  enemy's  citadels, 
the  high  places  of  his  dominion,  flaunting  defiance  in  the  face 
of  a  militant  Church.  They  are  the  Gibraltars  of  Satan's  power, 
perched  in  some  instances,  in  what  might  be  compared  to  eagles' 
fastnesses,  and  in  other  places  set,  like  islands,  amid  an  ocean 
of  unnavigable  sand.  Are  they  never  to  be  stormed?  Is  the 
reproach  that  their  unoccupied  character  brings  upon  Zion  never 
to  be  rolled  away?" 
— Rev.  James  Douglas,  in  the  "Missionary  Review  of  the  World." 


Chapter   I 
THE  HEART  OF  TWO  CONTINENTS 

Once  the  whole  world  was  unoccupied  territory.  Chris- 
tian missions  had  not  begun ;  the  first  Missionary  came 
unto  His  own  and  His  own  received  Him  not.  He  Him- 
self told  us  that  "the  field  is  the  world,"  and  Christianity 
sets  forth  universal  claims.  Christ  gave  His  disciples  a 
world-wide  commission  and  Christianity's  challenge  in  all 
ages  and  to  all  peoples  has  been  that  it  is  the  only  and  all- 
sufficient  religion.  This  claim  must  be  vindicated  by 
carrying  the  Gospel  to  every  creature.* 

When  Saul  saw  the  vision  of  the  risen  Lord  on  the 
road  to  Damascus  and  heard  the  great  command  anew 
from  the  lips  of  His  Master,  the  whole  Roman  world 
with  the  exception  of  Palestine  was  an  unoccupied  mission 
field.  The  apostle  to  the  Gentiles  began  his  work  at 
Damascus  and  Antioch,  and  then,  driven  by  the  spirit, 
he  pressed  on  to  regions  beyond,  preaching  the  Gospel 
from  Jerusalem  even  unto  Illyricum,  and  made  plans  to  go 
from  Rome  into  distant  Spain.  Because  of  this  world- 
wide vision  and  the  urgency  of  the  task,  he  writes  to 
the  Christians  at  Rome:  "So  have  I  striven  to  preach 
the  Gospel,  not  where  Christ  was  named,  lest  I  should 
build  upon  another  man's  foundation.     But  as  it  is  writ- 

^Hamack,   quoted   in   R.    E.    Speer's,    "Missionary    Principles   and    Prac- 
tice," 1*5. 


d  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

ten,  *To  whom  he  was  not  spoken  of,  they  shall  see ;  and 
tliey  that  have  not  heard  shall  understand.'  "^ 

Paul's  companions  and  successors  continued  to  carry 
out  this  program,  until  the  spread  of  Christianity  in  the 
first  century  of  the  Christian  Era  became  a  super- 
natural event  in  history.  Yet  at  the  close  of  the  apostolic 
age,  the  world  was  still  largely  unoccupied.  The  modern 
era  of  English  missions  began  with  Carey.  When  he 
wrote  his  investigation  of  the  missionary  problem^  (that 
wonderful  epitome  of  the  conditions  and  the  needs  of  the 
non-Christian  world  in  his  day),  it  was  true  that  dis- 
covery and  exploration  had  vastly  widened  the  horizon 
of  missions,  and  the  world  was  more  Christian  than  in 
the  days  of  Paul,  but  it  was  still  largely  unknown,  only 
partially  discovered  and  very  sparsely  occupied  by  mis- 
sions. Africa  was  unexplored,  China  unknown,  Central 
Asia  unvisited,  and  the  principal  mission  fields  of  to-day 
closed  by  barriers  and  difficulties  which  seemed  insur- 
mountable. 

Now  at  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century 
Missions  have  made  such  rapid  progress  that  there 
is  an  impression  in  some  quarters  that  all  doors  are  open, 
and  that  the  problem  of  evangelization  has  become  one 
of  opportunism  simply  depending  on  an  adequate  sup- 
ply of  men  and  means.  The  statement  has  even  been 
made  that  Tibet  is  the  one  country  to  which  the  Chris- 
tian missionary  has  not  penetrated!  But  this  is  not  the 
case. 

In  contemplating  the  unparalleled  progress  of  the  work 
of  missions  in  recent  years  and  the  wonderful  oppor- 

*Romans    15:20,  21. 

"William  Carey,   "An  Enquiry  into  the  Obligations  of  Christians  to  Use 
Means  for  the  Conversion  of  the  Heathen."     (London,   1892,  Reprint.) 


THE  HEART  OF  TWO  CONTINENTS  3 

tunities  which  challcncrc  the  Church  to  win  whole  na- 
tions, we  must  not  be  Wind  to  the  fact  that  there  is 
still  work  which  remains  to  be  begun,  as  well  as  work 
which  remains  to  be  finished,  if  the  plan  of  campaign  is 
to  be  all-inclusive  in  its  scope.  There  are  still  many 
portions  of  the  world  and  great  areas  of  population 
without  organized  missionary  effort ;  where  the  forces  of 
evil  hold  their  own  as  securely  as  if  the  Saviour  had  never 
conquered ;  where  the  famine-stricken  have  never  heard 
of  the  Bread  that  came  down  from  Heaven  for  the  heart- 
hunger  of  the  world ;  where  the  darkness  of  supersti- 
tion and  error  has  never  been  illumined  by  the  torch  of 
civilization  or  the  light  of  the  Gospel. 

In  attempting  a  survey  of  these  unreached  millions  a 
two-fold  division  of  the  unoccupied  sections  of  the  world 
field  is  natural.  First,  there  are  great  stretches  or  areas, 
counties  or  provinces,  wholly  untouched  by  missionary 
effort,  and  not  included  in  any  existing  scheme  of  mis- 
sionary operations.  There  are  also  smaller  sections  or 
portions  of  countries  and  provinces  included  sometimes 
within  the  scheme  of  existing  missionary  operations  but 
not  yet  occupied.  The  former  are  unoccupied  because 
of  special  hindrances,  difficulties  and  barriers  inherent  in 
the  missionary  problem  of  the  unoccupied  field ;  the  latter 
are  unreached  mainly  because  of  lack  of  money  and  men 
since  they  are  mostly  located  either  adjoining  mission 
fields,  or  perhaps  entirely  surrounded  by  spheres  of  mis- 
sionary activity. 

The  first  division  is  treated  in  this  chapter  and  in  the 
early  part  of  Chapter  II.  The  latter  part  of  that  chapter 
deals  with  the  second  division. 

It  is  a  fact  full  of  pathos  that  after  all  the  centuries  of 
missionary  effort,  what  may  be  called  the  heart  of  the  two 


4  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

great  continents  of  Asia  and  Africa  must  still  be  classi- 
fied under  the  heading  of  ''unoccupied  fields."  In  Central 
Asia  a  stretch  of  country  is  practically  unoccupied  whose 
vastness  is  literally  appalling.^  "Starting  in  Manchuria 
at  approximately  125  degrees  of  east  latitude,  the  Prov- 
ince of  Helung-kiang  contributes  1,500,000  who  are  with- 
out any  missionary  provision  whatever.  Moving  west- 
ward the  needs  of  at  least  2,500,000  of  nomad  Mongols 
come  into  view,  who  live  in  the  desert  of  Gobi  and  the 
stretches  of  Mongolia.  Still  westward  lies  the  Chinese 
province  of  Sin-Kiang,  including  Chinese  Turkistan, 
Kulja,  Zungaria  and  outer  Kan-su,  with  a  population  of 
over  1,000,000.  The  establishment  of  three  small  mis- 
sionary outposts  within  this  vast  territory  at  Yarkand, 
Kashgar  and  Urumtsi  alone  prevents  its  entire  inclu- 
sion in  this  vast  sweep  of  unrelieved  darkness.  South- 
ward, through  Kan-su,  Tibet  is  reached.  Here  there  are 
about  6,000,000  people  as  yet  wholly  destitute  of  mis- 
sionary ministration.  Westward  is  Afghanistan,  with 
four  millions,  and  north  of  Afghanistan,  Bokhara  and 
Khiva,  which,  together  with  the  Mohammedans  of  Rus- 
sian Turkistan  and  Russia  proper,  represent  a  population 
of  at  least  20,000,000,  all  of  them  without  a  missionary."^ 
To  a  greater  degree  even  than  in  the  case  of  Asia,  the 
heart  of  Africa  constitutes  a  vast  unoccupied  field. 
"Scattered  over  a  territory  of  immense  area  without 
counting  the  desert  stretches  of  the  Sahara,  and  fairly 
unified   in   its   character,   there   are   to   be   found   some 


^Map  in  Missionary  Review  of  the  World,  August,    igio,   589. 

*  Report  of  World  Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgh,  igro,  Vol.  I.  In 
quoting  from  this  report  here  and  elsewhere,  the  author  wishes  to  express 
his  obligation  to  the  Rev.  Chas.  R.  Watson,  D.D.,  and  the  Rev.  F  P. 
Haggard,  D.D.,  with  whom  he  was  associated  in  the  Sub-committee  on 
Unoccupied  Fields. 


THE  HKART  OF  TWO  CONTINENTS  5 

50,cx)0.ooo  people — almost  one-third  of  the  continent — 
not  only  unreached  but  without  any  existing  agency  hav- 
ing their  evangelization  in  contemplation  as  far  as  actual 
projected  plans  and  hopes  are  concerned.  This  area  be- 
gins a  few  hundred  miles  south  of  the  Mediterranean 
coast  and  includes  as  we  shall  sec  portions  of  Tripoli,  the 
Province  of  Oran,  the  southern  half  of  Algeria,  the 
Atlas  Riff  country,  the  Mulaya  Valley,  the  Sus  Valley, 
and  the  Sahara  district  of  Morocco ;  the  uncounted  thou- 
sands of  nomads  in  the  Sahara  proper ;  Rio  de  Oro  with 
a  population  of  130,000;  8,000,000  in  Senegambia  and 
the  Niger  District;  some  1,700,000  in  French  Guinea; 
1,500,000  in  Dahomey,  some  500,000  in  the  Ivory  Coast 
and  over  800.000  in  Portuguese  Guinea;  about  1,500,000 
pagans  in  Liberia ;  500,000  in  Togoland ;  some  4,700,000 
in  Northern  Nigeria ;  3,000,000  in  Kamerun ;  some 
8,000,000  in  the  French  Congo,  besides  4,000,000  of  the 
Baghirmi  and  Wadai  districts ;  several  millions  at  least 
out  of  the  30,000,000  of  the  Belgian  Congo ;  a  large  popu- 
lation in  Nyasaland ;  some  2,500,000  in  Portuguese  East 
Africa  ;  about  2,000,000  in  German  East  Africa ;  3,000,000 
in  British  East  Africa;  about  2,000,000  even  yet  in 
Uganda  and  750,000  in  the  Italian,  British  and  French 
Somalilands."^  These  figures  are  still  more  surprising 
when  we  remember  that  in  this  summary  of  unreached 
sections  the  boundaries  of  possible  activity  on  the  part 
of  existing  missionary  agencies  have  probably  been  drawn 
to  include  as  large  an  area  of  occupation  as  possible. 
The  question  may  be  seriously  raised.  Has  the  Church 
made  more  than  a  beginning  in  the  evangelization  of  the 
heart  of  the  Dark  Continent  ? 

Before  beginning  an  account  of  these  lands  in  detail 

^Report   of   World    Missionary   Conference,    Edinburgh,    1910,   Vol.    i. 


O  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

we  may  well  ask,  What  are  the  chief  races  that  await  the 
beginnings  of  the  Gospel  to-day  ?  A  conglomeration  of 
different  tribes  and  peoples  struggling  for  existence 
rather  than  for  mastery ;  a  medley  of  humanity  displayed 
nowhere  else  on  the  globe  in  greater  variety  and  yet 
welded  into  a  seeming  unity  by  physical  environment,  a 
common,  though  alien  religion  and  common  political 
hopes  and  fears, — such  is  Central  Asia. 

The  swarthy  Afghan,  the  fair  Mongolian,  Turcomans, 
Uzbegs,  Tajiks,  the  intellectual  type  from  the  schools 
at  Bokhara,  the  enterprising  merchant,  the  Khirgese 
nomad,  the  Kafirs  of  the  Hindu-Kush  who  combat  per- 
petual snow  and  cold,  as  well  as  the  Chantos  of  the  Tarim 
basin  scorched  by  desert  heat — all  together  form  the  pop- 
ulation of  this  vast  unevangellzed  region.  Not  counting 
the  small  colonies  of  Jews,  and  the  larger  groups  of  Chris- 
tians in  the  Russian  Orthodox  Church,  a  few  Armenian 
and  Hindu  traders,  the  entire  population  is  Mohammedan. 
Islam  has  spread  over  all  the  region  and  dominates  the 
heart  of  Asia  socially,  intellectually  and  spiritually  as 
strongly  and  overwhelmingly  as  it  does  North  Africa. 
The  city  of  Bokhara,  with  10,000  students  and  three 
hundred  and  sixty-four  mosques,  is  the  Cairo  of  Asia; 
it  was  for  centuries,  and  is  yet  in  a  measure,  the  center 
of  Moslem  learning  and  influence  for  all  the  middle 
East.  Indeed  all  the  great  cities  of  Central  Asia,  with 
the  exception  of  those  in  Tibet,  are  out  and  out  !Mo- 
hammedan.  Afghanistan  is  wholly  Moslem  and  Chinese 
and  Russian  Turkistan,  with  the  exception  of  some  of  the 
ruling  and  military  classes,  are  also  prevailingly  Mo- 
hammedan. 

The  social  life,  the  literature,  architecture,  art,  eti- 
quette and  everyday  speech  of  all  Central  Asia  bear  the 


THE   HEART  OK  TWO  CONTINENTS  7 

trade-mark  of  Islam.  An  ordinary  pocket-compass  goes 
by  the  name  of  **Mecca-pointcr"^  and  the  wild  men  of 
Hunza,  shut  out  by  the  mountains  from  every  contact 
with  the  outside  world,  have  no  god  but  Allah,  and  no 
idea  of  the  world  save  that  its  center  is  Arabia. 

Islam  has  therefore  put  its  impress  upon  the  life 
of  the  people,  and  yet  the  races  are  wide  apart  in  their 
special  characteristics.  The  Khirgese  of  Chinese  Turkis- 
tan  are  simple,  often  stupid,  but  hospitable  and  friendly  ;^ 
altliough  Mohammedans,  they  know  less  of  the  Koran  and 
of  Mohammed  than  they  do  of  raising  cattle  and  sheep 
in  their  nomad  life.  The  Sarts  are  somewhat  more  edu- 
cated, but  also  more  fanatical.  They  are  artisans  and 
business  men  rather  than  nomads.  The  character  of  the 
Afghans  is  strong  and  brave  but  proverbially  vindic- 
tive. The  Indian  proverb  says:  **God  preserve  you  from 
the  vengeance  of  an  elephant,  a  cobra  and  an  Afghan."^ 

That  of  the  Baluchis  is  not  much  better  in  this  respect, 
according  to  the  report  of  travelers.  After  quoting  the 
proverb,  "When  the  Almighty  created  the  world,  He 
made  Baluchistan  out  of  the  refuse,"  Lacoste  says:  "The 
Baluchi  with  his  copper  complexion  is  cut  out  of  the 
rock;  he  is  formed  of  shadow  and  mystery.  His  dark 
eye  is  impenetrable,  his  dark  hair  shrouds  him  in  night. 
He  is  silent,  haughty,  distrustful.  Before  opening  his 
door  to  the  stranger,  he  consults  the  heavens,  looking  for 
what  nomads  call  the  'Guest  star.'  Let  a  traveler  ven- 
ture to  the  threshold  of  a  tent,  were  he  on  the  point  of 
death,  hospitality  will  only  be  granted  him  if  the  fortunate 

^Svcn  Hedin,  "Through  Asia,"  Vol.  I,  457,  541;  Twelve  thousand  pilgrims 
visit  the  Moslem  shrine  of  Ordan   Pasha  in  Chinese  Turkistan   every  year. 

»Sven  Hedin,  "Central  Asia  and  Tibet,"  Vol.  I,  276-287;  cf.  E.  and  A. 
Thornton,    "Leaves    from   an    Afghan    Scrapbook,"    10-19. 

»B.   de   Lacoste,    "Around   Afghanistan,"    Preface,    xiv. 


8  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

Star  accompanies  him/'^  Dr.  Pennell,  who  has  worked 
for  sixteen  years  among  the  wild  tribes  of  the  Afghan 
frontier,  testifies  that  ''the  Afghan  character  is  a  strange 
medley  of  contradictory  qualities  in  which  courage  blends 
with  stealth,  the  basest  treachery  with  the  most  touching 
fidelity ;  intense  religious  fanaticism  with  an  avarice  which 
will  even  induce  him  to  play  false  to  his  faith,  and  a 
lavish  hospitality  with  an  irresistible  propensity  for  thiev- 
ing."^ When  converted  the  Afghan  has  remarkable 
strength  of  character  and  power  of  spirit  even  unto  mar- 
tyrdom.'* 

The  Arab  both  in  Arabia  and  in  Africa  is  a  strange 
paradox  of  good  qualities  and  of  those  that  are  bad,  the 
product  of  his  religion,  or  his  want  of  religion.  They 
are  polite,  good-natured,  lively,  manly,  patient,  courage- 
ous, and  hospitable  to  a  fault.  But  they  are  also  con- 
tentious, untruthful,  sensual,  distrustful,  covetous, 
proud  and  superstitious.* 

The  Tibetans  belong  like  the  Chinese  to  the  Mongolian 
family,  but  the  Chinese  type  has  become  modified  physi- 
cally as  well  as  otherwise  by  environment  and  religion. 
Isabella  Bird  Bishop  gives  this  pen-portrait :  "They  have 
high  cheek-bones,  broad  flat  noses  without  visible  bridges, 
small,  dark  oblique  eyes,  with  heavy  eyelids  and  imper- 
ceptible eyebrows,  wide  mouths,  full  lips ;  thick,  big  pro- 
jecting ears,  deformed  by  great  hoops,  straight  black 
hair,  nearly  as  coarse  as  horse  hair,  and  short,  square, 
ungainly  figures.    The  faces  of  the  men  are  smooth.    The 

*B.  de  Lacoste,  "Around  Afghanistan,"  164-165. 

'T.  L.  Pennell,  "Among  the  Wild  Tribes  of  the  Afghan  Frontier,"  17. 
Cf.  E.  and  A.  Thornton,  "Leaves  from  an  Afghan  Scrapbook,"  10-19. 

•See  the  Story  of  Abdul  Karim  in  Chapter  VIII. 

*S.  M.  Zwemer,  "Arabia,  the  Cradle  of  Islam,"  263,  264;  C.  M.  Doughty, 
"Arabia  Deserta,"   Vol.  1,  217,  228,  266,  Z7Z,  276,  332,  358;  Vol.   II,  443.  5«3- 


THE   HEART  01'  TWO  CONTINENTS  9 

women  seldom  exceed  five  feet  in  height,  and  a  man  is 
tall  at  five  feet  four  inches.  The  male  costume  is  a  long, 
loose,  woolen  coat,  with  a  girdle,  trousers,  undergar- 
ments, woolen  leggings,  and  a  cap  with  a  turned-up  point 
over  each  ear.  The  girdle  is  the  depository  of  many 
tilings  dear  to  a  Tibetan — his  purse,  rude  knife,  heavy- 
tinder-box,  tobacco  pouch,  pipe,  distaff  and  sundry  charms 
and  amulets. 

"The  women  wear  short  big-sleeved  jackets,  tight 
trousers  a  yard  too  long,  the  superfluous  length  forming 
folds  above  the  ankle.  Their  hair  is  dressed  once  a  month 
in  many  much-greased  plaits,  fastened  together  at  the 
back  by  a  long  tassel.  The  head-dress  is  a  strip  of  cloth 
or  leather,  sewn  over  with  large  turquoises,  carbuncles, 
and  silver  ornaments.  This  hangs  in  a  point  over  tlie 
brow,  broadens  over  the  top  of  the  head,  and  tapers  as 
it  reaches  the  waist  behind.  The  ambition  of  every 
Tibetan  girl  is  centered  in  this  singular  head-gear.  Hoops 
in  the  ears,  necklaces,  amulets,  clasps,  bangles  of  brass 
or  silver  and  various  implements  stuck  in  the  girdle,  and 
depending  from  it,  complete  a  costume  preeminent  in 
ugliness.  The  Tibetans  are  very  dirty.  They  wash  once 
a  year,  and,  except  for  festivals,  seldom  change  their 
clothes  till  they  begin  to  drop  off.  They  are  healthy  and 
hardy,  even  the  women  can  carry  weights  of  sixty  pounds 
over  the  passes.  They  attain  extreme  old  age ;  their 
voices  are  harsh  and  loud,  and  their  laughter  is  noisy 
and  hearty."^ 

According  to  others  the  character  of  the  Tibetans  gen- 
erally is  that  of  a  child-like  simplicity  and  even  gaiety. 
*'Beneath  his  savage,  hirsute,  and  sometimes  dirty  ap- 
pearance, this  little  man  is  joyful.    He  has  the  open  coun- 

•Mrs.   Isabella   Bird  Bishop,   "Among  the  Tibetans,"  43-46. 


lO  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

tenance  and  merry  eye  of  children.  Contrary  to  the 
pensive  Mussulman,  sparing  of  words,  and  constantly 
prostrate  in  ablutions  or  prayer,  the  Tibetan  seldom 
washes,  walks  along  singing,  and  says  his  prayers  by 
sleight  of  hand  along  the  roads."^ 

These  are  some  of  the  races  that  await  the  Gospel  in  the 
unoccupied  fields  of  Asia.  Of  their  social  and  religious 
conditions  we  will  learn  later.  The  races  that  inhabit  the 
unoccupied  fields  of  Africa  are  perhaps  not  as  diverse  as 
those  of  Asia,  but  they  are  no  less  in  need  of  the  renew- 
ing, the  refining  and  the  uplifting  power  of  the  Gospel. 

Taking  up  this  general  survey  of  the  areas  and  races 
hitherto  neglected  in  detail  we  begin  with  Central  Asia, 
lying  north  of  India  and  south  of  the  Siberian  Steppes. 
Here  is  the  roof  of  the  world  and  the  watershed  of  the 
largest  continent.  Here  three  empires,  India,  Russia  and 
China,  meet.  Here  three  great  religions  have  struggled 
for  the  mastery  and  one  after  the  other  gained  supremacy 
for  centuries.  Buddhism  and  Christianity  still  count  their 
adherents,  but  Islam,  as  we  have  seen,  has  swept  the  field. 
More  unknown  than  Central  Africa  and  in  some  places 
less  thoroughly  explored,  a  vast  area  of  barren  deserts  and 
fertile  oases;  of  parched  plains  and  navigable  rivers;  of 
perpetual  snow  and  perpetual  drought.  It  varies  in  eleva- 
tion from  the  low  depression  of  the  Caspian  Sea  and  the 
basin  of  the  Turfan  three  hundred  feet  below  sea  level 
in  the  very  heart  of  Asia,  to  the  plateaus  of  Thian  Shan 
and  the  Pamirs  with  an  elevation  of  10,000  to  20,000  feet. 
Although  usually  the  mountain  parts  are  comparatively 
rainy  and  well  covered  with  vegetation,  the  lowlands 
which  comprise  most  of  the  country  are  intensely  dry 
and  almost  absolutely  desert. 

»B.  de  Lacostc,   "Around  Afghanistan,"   148. 


5^ 


8 

00 


THi:   IIEAKT  OF  TWO  CONTINENTS 


II 


Not  only  tlic  physical  features  of  the  country  but 
the  habits  and  character  of  most  of  the  people  pos- 
sess a  distinct  unity,  for  all  alike  bear  the  impress  of 
an  arid  climate,  and  the  yoke  of  that  creed  "which  seems 
to  have  imbibed  its  nature  from  the  stern  inexorableness 
of  the  desert  on  the  one  hand  and  the  utter  relaxation 
of  the  oasis  on  the  other. "^ 

Including  Afghanistan,  Chinese  Turkistan,  Bokhara, 
Khiva,  Russian  Turkistan,  and  the  trans-Caspian  prov- 
ince, together  with  the  Steppes,  this  field  has  a  total 
area  of  2,232,530  square  miles,  and  a  population  of 
16.868,000.-  This,  however,  would  give  a  wrong  impres- 
sion of  the  real  density  of  population.  Since  the  rain- 
fall of  Central  Asia  has  decreased  so  that  its  rivers  fail 
to  reach  the  sea,  far  less  than  a  tenth  of  the  total  area 
is  permanently  habitable.  The  population  therefore  is 
comparatively  dense  in  the  irrigated  oases  along  the  rivers. 
The  nomads  wander  from  place  to  place  in  search  of 
pasture  for  their  flocks. 

Two  main  types  of  civilization  prevail ;  the  condition 

*E.    Huntington.   "The  Pulse  of  Asia,"   89. 
•"Statesman's  Ycar-Book,"    1910. 

Square  Miles.  Population. 

Afghanistan     25'>,ooo  4,500,000 

Chinese     Turkistan 550,000  i.joo.ooo 

Bokhara     83,000  1,250,000 

Khiva    24,000  800,000 

Russian    Turkistan— 

Ferghana     35.446  1,828,700 

Samarkand    26,627  1,109,000 

Syr  Daria   I94.I47  1.795,400 

Semirycchensk   144.550  1,123,400 

Trans-Caspian    Province    213,855  405,500 

Steppes  (four  provinces  of  Amo- 
linsk,     Semipalatmsk,     Turgai 

«nd   Uralsk)    710,905  2,856,100 

Totals  for  Central  Asia  2,2^2,5^0  16,868,000 


12  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

of  nomadism,  and  that  of  intensive  agriculture  with 
cities  centralizing  life  in  the  irrigated  oases.  Askabad, 
for  example,  has  a  population  of  30,000  and  a  garrison 
of  10,000  soldiers,  and  is  the  capital  of  a  province  nearly 
ten  times  the  size  of  Scotland.  Yet  it  is  only  a  fertile 
spot  in  the  vast  solitude  of  the  Kara-kum  desert.  If 
Egypt  is  the  gift  of  the  Nile,  Bokhara  may  be  called  the 
gift  of  the  Oxus  or  Amu  Darya,  and  Turkistan  of  the 
Syr  Darya  River.  Population  as  well  as  vegetation  in 
all  Central  Asia  is  limited  largely  to   irrigated  areas. 

Afghanistan  by  the  new  demarcation  of  its  boundaries 
includes  five  major  provinces,  Kabul,  Herat,  Kandahar, 
Afghan  Turkistan  and  Badakhshan,  and  two  territories, 
Kafiristan  and  Wakhan. 

In  the  province  of  Herat  alone  there  are  six  hundred 
villages,  but  the  chief  centers  of  population  are  the  provin- 
cial capitals  of  Kandahar,  Kabul,  Herat,  Balkh  and  Kun- 
duz.  The  first  named  is  the  metropolis  and  has  a  popu- 
lation of  50,000.^ 

The  principal  trade  routes  for  caravan  are:  Balkh 
to  Herat,  370  miles;  Kandahar  to  Herat,  400  miles  by 
Southern  and  367  by  Northern  route ;  Kandahar  to  Kabul, 
318  miles ;  Kabul  to  the  Oxus,  424  miles ;  and  to  Peshawar 
on  the  Indian  frontier,  191  miles. 

The  common  door  of  entrance  to  Afghanistan  from 
Persia  is  by  way  of  Meshed,  from  Bokhara  to  Merv,  and 
from  India  by  the  Khaibar  pass  to  Kabul,  the  Gomal 

^"Statesman's  Year-Book,"  1910,  567-570;  Imperial  Gazetteer  of  India, 
"Afghanistan  and  Nepal,"  1-89.  There  is  considerable  agriculture  with  two 
harvests  a  year,  and  the  exports  to  India  and  Bokhara  include  gram,  fruit, 
vegetables,  drugs,  spices,  wool,  silk,  cattle,  hides  and  tobacco  to  the  amount 
of  at  least  $6,000,000  a  year.  Northern  Afghanistan  is  tolerably  rich  in 
copper  and  lead;  iron,  gold  and  precious  stones  are  also  found,  but  the 
mineral  resources  are  undeveloped.  Manufactures  include  silks,  felts,  car- 
pets, rosaries,  and  camel-hair  fabrics. 


THE   HEART  OF  TWO  CONTINENTS  T3 

pass  to  Ghazni.  or  from  Chaman.  the  terminus  of  the 
Northwestern  Railway,  to  Kandahar.* 

Baluchistan,  next  door  neighbor  to  Afghanistan,  is  to 
most  people  an  almost  unknown  country.  Its  situation, 
physical  features,  and  products  have  until  recent  times 
possessed  few  attractions  for  either  the  traveler,  the  mer- 
chant or  the  statesman,  and  with  the  exception  of  the 
one  Church  Missionary  Society  station  on  the  north  at 
Quetta,  the  whole  of  the  country  is  practically  an  unoc- 
cupied field.  Its  general  appearance  fully  justifies  the 
title  given  it  by  a  traveler  of  "the  rubbish  heap  of  the 
world."  The  scenery  of  the  greater  part  of  Baluchistan 
is  barren  beyond  description.  Arid  and  stony  plains 
and  bleak  mountain  passes  extend  for  hundreds  of  miles. 
The  total  area  is  about  130,000  square  miles,  and  the 
population  is  estimated  at  900,000,  divided  into  two 
classes,  the  Baluchis  and  the  Brahuis.-  The  Baluchis 
have  several  points  of  resemblance  to  the  Tartars,  while 
the  Brahuis  seem  to  be  more  related  to  the  tribes  of  the 
Punjab.  The  religion  of  the  country  is  Islam,  and  it 
is  ruled  by  the  Khan  of  Kalat  under  the  direction  of 
a  British  Resident.  *To-day  the  country  is  divided," 
says  Mr.  A.  D.  Dixey,  "into  three  divisions  for  purposes 
of  administration :  ( i )  Agency  Territory  as  Kalat, 
where  a  political  officer  with  one  or  two  assistants  acts 
as  adviser  to  the  Khan;  (2)  Independent  Tribal  areas 
as  the  Marri  and  Eugti  countries,  where  the  political 
officer  endeavors  to  keep  the  peace  and  prevent  the  worst 
abuses;  (3)  Directly  Administered  Territory  as  Quetta- 
Peshin,  Thal-Chotiali,  Sibi,  and  the  Zhob,  where  the  sys- 

»A.   Hamilton,   "Afghanistan;"   C.   Field,   "With  the  Afghans;"   "States- 
man's   Ycar-Book,"    1910,    570. 
'"Statesman's   Year-Book,"    1910,    151. 


14  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

tern  of  government,  modified  by  tribal  laws,  resembles 
that  of  our  Indian  Empire."^  To  lovers  of  the  desert 
and  those  v^ho  know  the  attractions  of  the  untrodden 
regions  of  the  silent  wilderness  with  its  nomad  tribes,  the 
unexplored  portions  of  Baluchistan  and  its  frontiers  to- 
ward Persia  and  Afghanistan  will  present  peculiar  fas- 
cination.^ 

Chinese  Turkistan  (which  is  the  old  name  for  the  prov- 
ince now  called  Sin-Kiang)  in  its  widest  sense  in- 
cludes Kulja,  Zungaria  and  outer  Kan-su,  the  Chinese 
dependencies  between  Mongolia  and  Tibet.  The  inhabi- 
tants are  of  various  races,  and  the  chief  towns  are 
Kashgar,  Yarkand,  Khotan,  Kiria,  and  toward  the  north, 
Aksu.  In  some  regions  about  the  Kashgar  and  Yarkand 
rivers  the  soil  is  fertile;  fruits  and  vegetables  of  all 
sorts,  are  grown.  Wool,  cotton,  silk  and  jade  are  among 
the  exports. 

Extremes  of  heat  and  cold  mark  this  region;  zero 
weather  changing  to  sudden  spring.  April  is  often  so 
warm  that  even  then  the  swarms  of  gnats  and  flies  whicii 
continue  all  summer  begin  to  be  troublesome.  A  dis- 
agreeable feature  of  the  otherwise  not  unhealthy  climate 
are  the  strong  and  long-continued  desert  winds  which 
fill  the  air  with  dust  and  make  every  one  irritable. 

The  country  has  great  undeveloped  resources.  Ac- 
cording to  Huntington,  ''Only  a  fraction  of  the  water 
which  flows  out  of  the  mountains  reaches  the  oases,  prob- 
ably not  one-half  in  the  w^estern  portion  of  the  basin 
and  not  a  tenth  in  the  eastern  portion.  The  tremendous 
fall  of  the  water  among  the  mountains  ought  to  be 
utilized    for    manufacturing    purposes.      The    abundant 

^Church  Missionary  Review,    November,    1908. 

'O.  P.  Tate,   "The  Frontiers  of  Baluchistan,"  Introduction. 


THE  HEART  OF  TWO  CONTINENTS  I5 

cotton,  silk,  and  wool  of  the  oases  could  be  converted 
into  cloth ;  the  fruit  and  vegetables  could  be  preserved 
and  the  milk  made  into  butter  and  cheese.  And  besides 
all  this  the  mountains  contain  f^^old  and  other  useful 
metals.'"  For  the  new  China  this  region  may  offer  an 
easy  and  promising  avenue  of  expansion  and  analogous  to 
the  southwest  of  the  United  States.  On  the  east  is  the 
terrible  desert  of  Gobi  and  in  the  center  the  Lobnor,  a 
series  of  salt  lakes  and  marshes. 

The  highest  trade  route  in  the  world  leads  from  India 
over  the  Karakoram  Pass,  18.300  feet  high  to  Chinese 
Turkistan.  Caravans  loaded  with  "tea,  spices,  cloth  and 
Korans"  make  the  dangerous  journey.  Skeletons  of 
horses  and  camels  strew  the  pathway,  and  yet  fifteen  hun- 
dred Chinese  Moslem  pilgrims  chose  this  path  over  the 
roof  of  the  world  to  Mecca  in  a  single  year.  There  is 
one  other  route  from  Chinese  Turkistan  on  to  the 
west.  It  is  by  way  of  Kashgar  to  Osh  and  Andizhan, 
the  terminus  of  the  Central  Asian  Railroad  in  Russian 
Turkistan.  This  route  is  easier  physically  as  it  crosses 
the  Terek  Davan  Pass  (12,000  feet)  and  shorter,  but 
Russian  taxes  and  passports  favor  the  other  road. 

Except  for  the  occasional  visits  of  colporteurs  of  the 
British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  and  the  occupation 
of  two  stations,  Kashgar  and  Yarkand,  by  the  Swedish 
Mission,  organized  in  1894,  the  whole  of  this  region  is 
neglected.  The  total  number  of  missionaries,  counting 
women,  at  these  two  stations  is  now  seventeen,  and  the 
total  number  of  native  workers  is  six.  The  four  Gos- 
pels have  been  translated  into  Kashgari,  and  work  has 
begun,  but  in  view  of  the  immense  area  and  the  large 

*E.  Huntington,  "The  Pulse  of  Asia,"  236,  237. 


l6  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

population,  this  part  of  the  world  is  still  a  practically 
unoccupied  field. ^ 

Russia  in  Central  Asia  is  another  area  unoccupied  by 
Protestant  missionary  effort.  Its  total  area  and  popula- 
tion are  given  in  Appendix  B. 

About  sixty-five  per  cent  of  the  population  in  Asiatic 
Russia  are  sedentary,  fifteen  per  cent  semi-nomadic,  and 
twenty  per  cent  nomads  of  the  Steppes.  The  density 
of  population  varies  greatly.  Some  districts  are  very 
sparsely  settled,  although  the  population  of  the  Khanate 
of  Bokhara  is  1,250,000  within  a  cultivated  area  of  only 
4,000  square  miles.  The  climate  varies  exceedingly  ac- 
cording to  latitude  and  elevation,  but  is  generally  health- 
ful.^ The  means  of  transportation  is  by  caravan  along 
good  roads  in  many  directions,  but  more  especially  by 
the  Russian  Trans-Caspian  Railway  and  by  steam 
navigation  on  the  River  Oxus. 

Some  writers  insist  that  "the  great  mountain-backbone 
on  the  north  of  the  Indian  frontier  divides  Asia  eth- 
nographically,  economically,  strategically  and  politically; 
and  for  a  power  whose  home  is  in  the  far  North  to  aspire 

^In  a  paper  printed  for  circulation  at  the  World  Missionary  Conference, 
Edinburgh,  1910,  L.  E.  Hogberg  says:  "If  we  for  a  moment  join  Af- 
ghanistan, Chinese  Turkistan,  large  territories  of  Tibet  and  Mongolia  with 
the  Russian  Dominions,  we  have  a  third  part,  nearly  half  of  the  whole 
eastern  hemisphere,  not  occupied  by  missionary  societies.  What  is  done  in 
that  enormous  field  is  but  a  drop  in  the  ocean,  and  scarcely  worth  men- 
tioning. By  Divine  will  I  stand  here  to-day  and  wish  to  present  before  the 
conference  the  deep  spiritual  needs  of  the  millions  m  that  tremendous 
field." 

-"Statesman's  Year-Book,"  1910,  1153.  The  chief  centers  of  population, 
trade  and  communication  are  the  following  cities:  Tashkend  (i5S.673)» 
Kokand  (81,354),  Namangan  (62,017),  Samarkand  (58,194),  Andizhan  (47,627), 
Omsk  (37.376),  Marghelan  (36,490),  Bokhara  (75,000),  Karshi  (25,000),  Hissar 
(10,000),  Khiva  (5,000),  Osh  (34,157),  Semipalatinsk  (36,040).  The  chief 
commercial  products  are  cereals,  corn,  fruit,  silk,  cotton,  tobacco,  hemp; 
and  breeds  of  goats,  sheep,  horses  and  camels.  Gold,  salt,  alum,  sulphur 
and  other  minerals  are  also  exported. 


THE  HEART  OF  TWO  CONTINENTS  I^ 

to  rule  south  of  this  natural  barrier  seems  to  contradict 
the  g:eneral  fitness  of  things."  They  believe  that  the  long 
rivalry  of  England  and  Russia  in  regard  to  spheres  of 
influence  in  the  heart  of  Asia  is  artificial  and  not  due 
to  a  real  conflict  of  essential  interests.  Others  look  upon 
the  railway  system  built  at  such  immense  cost  and  (from 
Tashkend.  Bokhara,  Samarkand,  and  Merv  as  military 
centers)  running  south  to  within  ninety  miles  from  Herat 
as  a  direct  challenge  to  British  interests  in  Afghanistan 
and  British  rule  in  India.  However  that  may  be,  the 
Orenburg-Tashkend  Railway  with  its  branches  is  of  the 
very  greatest  significance  for  the  economic  and  mission- 
ary future  of  this  vast  unoccupied  area.  The  fact  that 
there  are  3,202  miles  of  railway  in  actual  operation  is 
a  startling  evidence  of  the  progress  of  the  march  of  civi- 
lization in  this  part  of  the  world  and  a  challenge  to  mis- 
sions. From  St.  Petersburg  to  Orenburg  there  are  1,230 
miles  of  railway  and  from  Orenburg  to  Tashkend,  1,174 
miles.  From  Tashkend  steel  rails  stretch  to  Merv  (603 
miles)  and  from  Merv  ever  southward  to  Kushkinski 
(195  miles),  the  furthest  military  outpost  of  Russia  to- 
ward India,  leaving  a  gap  of  less  than  five  hundred  miles 
to  New  Chaman  and  the  railway  system  of  the  North- 
west provinces.* 

In  addition  to  this  railway  system  there  is  a  regular 
steamboat  service  on  the  Oxus  River  between  Petro  Alex- 


^The  amount  of  time,  money  and  labor  expended  by  the  Russian  Govern- 
ment in  works  of  irrigation,  bridges,  military  hospitals  and  depots  is 
surprising.  The  necessity,  the  aim  and  the  method  of  the  Russian  occupa- 
tion and  conquest  of  province  after  province  in  Central  Asia  are  set  forth 
very  clearly  from  the  Russian  standpoint  in  the  famous  "Circular  Despatch," 
by  Prince  Gortchakow,  dated  November  21,  1864.  This  official  document  is 
of  the  greatest  importance  to  a  right  understanding  of  the  whole  subject, 
and  should  be  read  by  those  who  contemplate  entering  this  field. — A. 
Hamilton,  "Afghanistan,"  493-497- 


l8  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

androvsk  and  Charjui  for  over  two  hundred  miles  and 
from  Charjui  to  the  head  of  navigation,  Patta  Hissar, 
for  288  miles. 

This  part  of  Central  Asia  therefore  is  physically  ac- 
cessible in  most  of  its  populated  districts  by  rail  or  river, 
and  the  great  centers  of  population  are  knit  together  by 
telegraph,  commerce  and  military  occupation.  The  high- 
ways are  ready  for  the  King.^ 

Siberia,  though  belonging  to  Russia  and  therefore  oc- 
cupied by  the  Greek  Church  and  its  missions,  has 
nevertheless  a  population  largely  pagan.^  Deficient  in 
solar  warmth  it  is  yet  more  terribly  in  need  of  the  rays 
of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness.  Within  a  vast  area  of 
nearly  6,000,000  square  miles,  sloping  toward  the  north 
and  furrowed  by  immense  but  useless  rivers,  in  a  rigorous 
climate,  there  live  perhaps  5,700,000  people — about  the 
population  of  the  city  of  London.  Widely  scattered  over 
so  vast  a  territory,  the  indigenous  population  of  Siberia 
though  sparse  is  very  interesting.  About  one-third  of 
the  people  are  Russian  immigrants  or  exiles;  others  like 
the  Buriats,  of  whose  strange  religion  an  account  is 
given  in  Chapter  V,  are  nomadic.^ 

Aside  from  the  work  of  the  Greek  Church  there  is  no 
missionary  effort  carried  on  among  the  pagans,  many  of 
whom  are  becoming  converted  to  Islam.  The  late  Dr. 
Baedeker,  who  repeatedly  traversed  the  Siberian  plains, 
visiting  those  who  were  exiles  or  in  prison,  made  an  ap- 
peal to  the  Timothys  of  our  age  when,  far  advanced  in 
years,  he  wrote:  "My  time  is  running  out.     I  am  now 

'For  carefully  prepared  statistics  of  the  Moslem  population  in  the  Rus- 
sian Empire,  see  Appendix. 

•J.  Curtin,  "A  Journey  in  Southern  Siberia,"  4,  42-50. 

'H.  P.  Beach,  "A  Geography  and  Atlas  of  Protestant  Missions,"  Vol.  I, 
496,  497;  J.  Curtin,  "A  Journey  in  Southern  Siberia,"  Chaps.  I  and  11. 


THE  HEART  OF  TWO  CONTINENTS  I9 

seventy  years  of  age  and  consequently  I  cannot  hope  to 
repeat  ray  visits  to  Siberia.  I  wish  therefore  to  stir  up 
the  holy  ambitions  of  my  younger  brethren  to  take  up 
this  glorious  work  of  carrying  the  light  into  the  darkest 
places  of  the  earth  where  sin  rules  over  the  hearts  of  men 
and  where  nothing  but  the  Gospel  of  redemption  by  the 
blood  of  Jesus  can  be  of  any  avail. "^ 

Next  neighbor  to  Siberia  in  location  and  destitution,  is 
the  large  indefinite  tract  of  country  called  Mongolia.  It 
is  part  of  the  empire  of  China  and  comprises  about 
1,367,600  square  miles  and  a  population  of  2,500,000.  Of 
this  population  at  least  two  million  are  wholly  unreached. 
A  wide  portion  of  this  vast  area  consists  of  the  desert 
of  Gobi,  which  runs  southwestward  into  Chinese  Turkis- 
tan.  The  rest  of  the  country  is  a  high  plateau  some  3,000 
feet  above  sea  level.  The  northern  part  is  mountainous, 
but  toward  the  south  there  are  rich  meadow  lands  which 
afford  grazing  for  cattle.  The  chief  center  of  population 
is  Urga,  170  miles  south  of  Maimachin,  the  center  of 
the  caravan  trade  with  China  across  the  Gobi  Desert. - 
Buddhist  Lamaism  is  the  prevalent  form  of  religion,  and 
nomad  life  is  the  type  of  civilization.  "Scattered  here 
and  there  over  the  prairies  are  clusters  of  circular  felt 
tents,  surrounded  with  the  inevitable  stacks  of  argol — 
dried  dung,  used  as  fuel — and  with  swarms  of  children 
and  wolfish  Mongol  dogs.  Prayer  flags  fluttering  over 
the  encampment,  horsemen  watching  their  widely  scat- 
tered herds  of  cattle  and  camels,  and  lazy  lamas  on  pil- 
grimage",^— such  is  the  scene  of  daily  life  in  Mongolia. 
With  the  exception  of  the  work  of  the  London  Missionary 

^Missionary  Rez-iew  of   the   World,   July,   1894,   506. 
'"Statesman's  Year-Book,"   1910,  702. 

»H.   P.  Beach,   "A  Geography  and  Atlas  of  Protestant  Missions,"   Vol.   1, 
274. 


20  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

Society  under  James  Gilmour,  who  labored  in  the  north, 
the  southern  portion  of  Mongolia  is  practically  the  only 
part  occupied  by  Protestant  missionaries.^ 

In  the  very  heart  of  Asia  and  perched  between  the  two 
highest  mountain  chains  of  the  world,  the  Kwen-lun  and 
the  Himalayas,  lie  the  highlands  of  Tibet  with  an  area 
of  463,200  square  miles  and  a  population  estimated  by 
some  as  high  at  6,500,000^  and  by  others  at  less  than 
4,000,000.^  This  fascinating  country,  bleak,  mountainous 
and  guarded  at  every  entrance  has  resisted  missionary 
effort  for  many  decades.  "The  jealous  apprehensions  of 
the  Chinese  Government,"  writes  Sven  Hedin,  "the  re- 
ligious fanaticism  of  the  Tibetans  and  the  wild  nature 
of  their  country — ^these  are  the  factors  which  have  kept 
Tibet  in  isolation  longer  than  any  other  country  in  Asia 
.  .  .  Only  a  few  of  the  more  adventurous  Europeans 
have  done  their  share  toward  collecting  the  scanty  ma- 
terial upon  which  our  present  knowledge  of  the  country 
is  based.  Its  desolate  scenery,  its  lofty,  inaccessible 
mountains  and  its  extreme  remoteness,  situated  as  it  is, 
in  the  heart  of  a  vast  continent,  have  deterred  travelers 
and  driven  them  to  find  scope  for  their  activity  in  other 
parts  of  the  world."^ 

The  country  is  not  fertile.  Only  in  certain  favored 
localities  is  agriculture  carried  on.  For  the  most  part 
the  pursuits  are  pastoral,  the  domestic  animals  being  the 
sheep  and  yak;  in  some  places,  also  buffaloes,  pigs  and 
camels.  Wool  spinning  and  weaving  are  common,  as 
well  as  the  manufacture  of  images,  prayer  wheels  and 

^For  full  description  of  the  conditions  and  needs  of  this  difficult   field, 
see  Marshall   Broomhall,   "The   Chinese   Empire,"   338-359. 
'"Statesman's  Year-Book,"   1910,   700. 

*W.  W.   Rockhill  in  Missionary  Review  of  the  World,  June,  1894. 
*Sven  Hedin,   "Through  Asia,"   Vol.    I,  4,  5. 


i 


THE  TIF.ART  OF  TWO  CONTINENTS  21 

Other  religious  articles.  The  chief  minerals  are  gold, 
borax  and  salt.  There  is  a  large  trade  with  China  and 
some  traffic  across  the  Indian  frontier.* 

Tibet  has  long  been  nominally  a  Chinese  dependency 
and  Chinese  authority  is  represented  by  two  governors  or 
ambans  who  have  charge  respectively  of  foreign  and 
military  affairs.  The  civil  and  religious  administration 
of  the  country  is,  however,  left  almost  entirely  to  the 
Tibetans  themselves.  Under  the  Convention  of  August 
31,  1907,  Great  Britain  and  Russia  agreed  not  to  enter 
into  negotiations  with  Tibet  except  through  the  Chinese 
Government,  or  to  send  representatives  to  Lhasa.  Since 
that  date  there  have  been  further  negotiations  and  trade 
regulations  between  India  and  Tibet.  On  the  occupation 
of  Lhasa  by  Chinese  troops,  the  Dalai  Lama  fled  from 
Tibet  into  British  India.^ 

Immediately  south  of  Tibet  there  are  two  other  inde- 
pendent kingdoms  in  the  Himalayas  both  still  unoccupied 
territory.  Nepal  stretches  from  east  to  west  five  hundred 
miles  and  is  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles  broad.  It 
is  bounded  on  the  east  by  Sikkim  and  on  the  south  and 
west  by  British  India.  With  a  total  area  of  54,000  square 
miles,  the  population  is  estimated  at  about  5.000,000.  Un- 
like those  of  Tibet,  the  tribes  inhabiting  Nepal  are  not  of 
the  same  religious  faith.  Some  are  Mongols  in  origin 
and  Buddhists,  but  the  majority  are  Hindu  in  faith  and 
descent.    The  dominant  race  are  the  Gurkhas,  one  of  the 

^"Statesman's  Year-Book,"    1910,  702. 

'Lhasa,  the  capital,  stands  in  a  fertile  plain  at  an  elevation  of  nearly 
l^ooo  feet,  with  a  population  of  from  15,000  to  20,000,  The  chief  marts 
of  trade  with  India  are  Yatung,  Gyangtze  and  Gartok.  '  According  to 
treaties  and  conventions,  trade  regulations  now  exist  between  India  and 
Tibet,  which  are  ratified  by  China,  but  no  Tibetan  territory  may  be  sold 
or  leased  to  any  foreign  power  without  the  consent  of  the  British.  In 
regard  to  present  missionary  effort  on  the  borders  of  Tibet,  see  M. 
Broomhall,   "The  Chinese  Empire,"  318-337. 


22  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

bravest  races  of  Asia,  who  about  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century  acquired  ascendency  over  all  the  other 
tribes  and  whose  prince  is  now  sovereign.^  A  British 
Resident  resides  at  the  capital,  Khatmandu,  which  has  a 
population  of  about  50,000,  but  he  does  not  interfere  in 
the  internal  affairs  of  the  state.  The  people  are  pros- 
perous. The  country  has  not  yet  been  thoroughly  ex- 
plored.   Its  chief  resources  are  cattle  and  forest  produce.^ 

Almost  hidden  on  the  map  of  Asia  but  not  from  the 
love  of  God,  entirely  within  the  Himalayan  range  of 
mountains,  lies  the  little  independent  state  of  Bhutan. 
It  is  bounded  on  the  south  by  Assam  and  on  the  north 
by  Tibet.  Its  extreme  length  from  east  to  west  is  only 
160  miles,  and  its  breadth  90  miles.  Its  population  is 
unknown,  but  is  estimated  at  present  to  be  at  least 
300,000.^  Mr.  J.  Claude  White,  the  most  recent  explorer, 
gives  an  interesting  account  of  his  five  journeys  and 
describes  the  contrast  between  the  fertility  of  Bhutan  and 
the  barrenness  of  Tibet,  as  startling.  Physically  the 
Bhutanese  are  a  fine,  robust  people,  although  wanting 
in  energy^  and  initiative.  In  government  and  religion 
Bhutan  resembles  Tibet.  Good  roads  and  buildings  are 
evidence  of  the  high  degree  of  civilization  in  this  high 
mountain  state,  yet  Bhutan  has  been  for  centuries  a 
country  absolutely  closed  to  Europeans.*  Its  Maharajah 
is  now  under  British  protection^  and  this  may  prove 
favorable  to  entrance. 

East  of  Siam  and  jutting  out  toward  the  Chinese  Sea 
is  the  region  known  as  French  Indo-China,  including  the 

^Imperial  Gazetteer  of  India,   "Afghanistan  and  Nepal,"  91-129. 
^H.    R.    Mill,   "International   Geography,"    503. 

3J.   C.  White,  "Journeys  in  Bhutan,"   Geographical  Journal,  January,   1910. 
*Rev.  J.  A.  Graham,  "On  the  Threshold  of  Three  Closed  Lands,"  Edin- 
burgh,  1899. 
^London  Times,  weekly  edition,  April  i,   1910. 


THE   HEART  OF  TWO  CONTINENTS  23 

five  States  of  Annam,  Cambodia,  Cochin-China,  Tonking 
and  Laos.  The  shape  of  the  country  is  Hke  a  big  capital 
J  of  which  Tonking  forms  the  head,  Cochin-China  and 
Cambodia  the  left  curve  and  Annam  the  stem.  These 
five  states  have  a  combined  area  of  256,000  square  miles, 
and  a  population  of  about  18,230,000.'  The  whole  country 
is  under  a  French  Governor  General  and  each  of  the 
states  has  a  Resident  or  Resident  Governor.  Annam  is 
the  largest  in  area  and  has  a  population  of  6,000,000; 
Cambodia  has  1,500.000;  Cochin-China  nearly  3,000,000. 
The  country  has  been  fairly  explored  and  developed  under 
the  French  Government.  The  oldest  railway  runs  from 
Saigon,  the  capital  of  Cochin-China,  to  Mytho,  and  the 
total  length  of  railway  is  over  1,900  miles.  Except  for 
the  work  of  the  "Open  Brethren"  recently  begun  at 
Song-khone^  this  territory,  although  it  has  Roman  Cath- 
olic Missions,  schools,  and  a  considerable  number  of 
Roman  Catholic  converts,  has  no  other  Protestant  Mis- 
sion station  within  all  its  borders.  Buddhism  and  Ani- 
mism prevail,  although  in  addition  to  the  Roman 
Catholics,  there  are  a  large  number  of  Hindus 
(Brahmins)  and  232,000  Moslems.' 

Before  leaving  the  survey  of  the  unoccupied  fields  in 
Asia  we  cross  over  once  more  from  the  east  to  the  extreme 
west.  Arabia,  the  cradle  of  Islam,  is  still  a  challenge  to 
Christendom,  a  Gibraltar  of  fanaticism  and  pride  that 
shuts  out  the  messenger  of  the  Christ.  The  present 
missionary  force  is  wholly  limited  to  the  East  coast  and 
the  vicinity  of  Aden.  There  are  only  four  points  on  a 
coast    of    4,000    miles    where    there    are    resident    mis- 

^"Statesman's  Year-Book,"  1910.    Ci.  G.  M.  Vassal,  "On  and  Off  Duty  in 
Annam,"  2. 
'Statistical    Atlas   of   Christian    Missions,    Station    Index. 
•On  Moslems  of  Indo-China,  Revue  du  Monde  Mussulman,  1909,   passim. 


24  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

sionaries.  There  is  not  a  single  mission  station  far 
inland.  No  missionary  has  ever  crossed  the  peninsula. 
The  only  part  that  is  fairly  well  occupied  is 
the  river  country  including  the  two  provinces  of  Bagdad 
and  Busrah,  where  there  are  two  stations  and  three  out- 
stations,  but  even  here  scarcely  anything  has  been  done 
for  the  large  Bedouin  population.  Hejaz,  the  "Holy 
Land"  on  the  west  with  Mecca  and  Medina,  has  no  mis- 
sionary. And  Hadramaut,  one  of  the  widest  regions  un- 
touched by  missionary  effort  and  stretching  for  1,200 
miles  from  Aden  to  Muscat,  with  a  population  of  per- 
haps a  million  souls,  is  without  missions.  The  eastern 
tribes  of  this  large  province  are  pagan  rather  than 
Moslem.  Their  dialect  is  distinct  from  the  Arabic  spoken 
elsewhere;  their  customs  are  peculiar  and  primitive.* 
Western  Hadramaut,  on  the  other  hand,  is  a  country 
of  mountain  villages  and  agriculture.  The  mountain 
passes  are  dotted  with  castles  and  agricultural  settle- 
ments. "Without  photographs  to  bear  out  my  state- 
ments," Theodore  Bent  writes,^  "I  would  hardly  dare  de- 
scribe the  magnificence  of  these  castles  and  villages  of 
Hadramaut.  That  at  Haura  is  seven  stories  high  and 
covers  fully  an  acre  of  ground.  The  doors  are  exquisitely 
decorated  with  intricate  wood  carving."  The  picture 
facing  page  166,  of  the  sheikh's  house  at  Makallah  on  the 
coast,  now  the  metropolis  of  Hadramaut,  visited  in  1891, 
is  positive  proof  that  this  part  of  Arabia  is  not  the  utter 
desert  one  would  imagine  from  the  average  map.^ 

^Carter,  one  of  the  early  explorers,  said  of  the  people:  "It  is  only  here 
and  there  on  the  coast  that  we  meet  with  a  man  who  could  say  Moslem 
prayers.  Those  of  the  interior  seem  wholly  devoid  of  religion,  having  no 
idea  of  God  or  devil,  heaven  or  hell." 

^T.  Bent,  "Southern  Arabia,"  London,   1900. 

'S.  M.  Zwemer,  "An  Appeal  for  Hadramaut,"  Missionary  Review  of  th§ 
World,  October,  1902. 


THE  HEART  OF  TWO  CONTINENTS  2$ 

Jebcl  Shammar  and  all  the  northern  plateau  with  its 
Bedouin  population  has  no  resident  missionary,  nor  has 
Nejd,  the  great  central  province.  The  total  population 
unreached  by  the  Gospel  in  these  Arabian  provinces  can 
be  conservatively  estimated  at  4,ooo,cxx).  Missionary 
work  in  Arabia  so  far  has  been  largely  preliminary.  Not 
until  every  province  is  entered  and  the  great  strategic 
cities  Mecca,  Medina,  Sana,  Hodeida — not  to  speak  of 
similar  centers  of  population  in  Oman  and  Nejd — are  all 
reached  by  the  missionary  can  we  truly  speak  of  Arabia 
as  occupied. 

Crossing  the  Red  Sea  we  turn  once  more  to  the  great 
unoccupied  areas  of  Africa  already  given  in  the  summary 
at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter,  and  here  call  special  at- 
tention to  that  field  which  is  largest  in  extent  and  most 
important  because  of  its  location  and  strategy,  the  Su- 
dan. Of  it,  Mr.  Tangye  writes:  "That  mysterious 
West — what  lands  and  scenes  are  lit  up  by  the  sun 
as  it  throbs  its  way  daily  across  the  great  continent ! 
From  the  long-limbed  Shilluks  it  goes  onward  to  the  Xu- 
bas  in  South  Kordofan,  hilly  and  wild,  but  half  brought 
under  restraint  and  control,  where  the  villages  perch  on 
the  hills,  and  every  man's  hand  turns  against  that  of  his 
neighbor;  then  over  the  regions  of  the  French  Sudan, 
Lake  Chad,  Nigeria,  and  on  to  the  sea.  It  sees  count- 
less myriads  of  human  beings,  whose  lives  are  often  de- 
pendent on  the  caprice  of  a  chief,  whose  existence  is  al- 
ways up  against  the  edge  of  the  sword,  but  who  gradually, 
slowly,  are  being  rescued  by  civilization  from  aggravated 
uncertainties  as  to  life  and  to  liberty."^  It  is  a  land  of 
varied  races  and  of  a  multitude  of  tongues  and  peoples, 
stretching  across  a  span  exceeding  that  from  San  Fran- 

»H.  L.  Ttagyt,  "In  the  Torrid  Sudan,"  i8i,  i8». 


26  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

Cisco  to  New  York,  but  broadly  divisible  into  three  re- 
gions, the  Western  Sudan,  the  Egyptian  Sudan  and  the 
Central  Sudan.  The  region  between  Lake  Chad  and  the 
Egyptian  Sudan  comprises  the  Sudanese  kingdoms  of 
Wadai,  Adamawa,  Kanem  and  Baghirmi,  with  a  total 
population  of  some  4,000,000.  In  the  European  partition 
of  Africa,  these  kingdoms  have  been  placed  within  the 
sphere  of  French  influence,  but  they  are  so  difficult  of 
access  and  so  little  is  known  of  them,  that  statistics  are 
largely  guess  work.  The  total  population  of  the  Sudan 
in  its  widest  area  has  been  estimated  by  Dr.  Kumm  and 
others  at  no  less  than  40,000,000.^  The  estimates  given 
in  the  "Statesman's  Year-Book"  for  the  various  districts 
of  the  Sudan  make  the  population  much  smaller,  perhaps 
only  one-fourth  as  great. 

In  Northern  Nigeria  is  an  empire  larger  in  area  than 
all  Japan  and  inhabited  by  nations  who  were  armed  with 
guns  in  battle  when  our  forefathers  only  knew  the  use 
of  the  bow  and  arrov/,^  and  where  the  Hausa  language, 
the  only  native  African  language  with  a  literature,  is 
spoken.^ 

The  Egyptian  Sudan  is,  with  the  exception  of  tlie 
three  stations  on  the  Nile,  also  an  unoccupied  field,  espe- 
cially the  region  of  Darfur  and  Bahr-el-Ghazal,  while 
on  the  north  lies  the  vast  Sahara  over  which  France 
claims  sway.  This  is  a  territory  larger  than  all  India, 
not  only  without  a  missionary,  but  not  even  within  the 
prospective  of  any  mission.*  Its  population  may  be 
roughly  estimated  at  over  800,000,  consisting  of  nomads 

^K.   Kumm,  "The   Sudan,"  69. 
«Ibid.  20. 

*C.    H.    Robinson,    "Specimens   of    Hausa    Literature,"    Cambridge,    1896. 
Introduction  and  Bibliography. 
♦Report  of  \Vorl4   Missionary  Conference,   Edinburgh,   191P,  Vol.   i. 


THE  HEART  OF  TWO  CONTINENTS  VJ 

of  the  desert  and  those  who  dwell  in  the  oases  and  moun- 
tains. At  present  the  only  way  to  reach  them  is  along 
the  difficult  caravan  tracks,  but  if  the  French  Railway 
extends  from  Algiers  to  Kuka  on  Lake  Chad,  it  may 
prove  a  highway  to  carry  these  desert-dwellers  the  Gospel 
of  Christ.^ 

The  Spanish  possession  of  Rio  de  Oro,  including 
Adrar,  stretches  southward  along  the  Sahara  coast  from 
the  frontier  of  Morocco,  and  is  under  the  governorship 
of  the  Canary  Islands.  It  has  an  area  of  70,000  square 
miles  and  a  population  of  130,000,  and  is  without  mis- 
sions.- Yet  this  country  seems  comparatively  insignifi- 
cant beside  the  French  territory  to  the  south  of  it,  which 
reaches  across  to  British  Nigeria  and  stretches  down 
to  the  sea,  between  the  possessions  of  other  countries 
in  five  different  sections.  This  area — three  times  that 
of  France — is  only  touched  by  Protestant  missions.^  It 
includes  the  valley  of  Upper  Senegal,  more  than  two- 
thirds  of  the  course  of  the  Niger  and  the  whole  of  the 
country  enclosed  in  its  great  bend  as  far  as  Algeria. 
The  area  is  about  70,000  square  miles,  and  the  popula- 
tion about  5,000,000.*  On  the  Senegal  River  near  the 
coast  there  is  a  small  mission  of  the  Paris  Society.  In 
French  Guinea,  of  which  we  speak  later,  there  is  an 
English  Episcopal  Mission,  manned  from  the  West  In- 
dies, while  at  the  west  extremity  of  the  Ivory  Coast, 
there  are  a  few  small  mission  stations,  but  with  these 
exceptions  the  whole  of  this  French  territory  with  its 


*Gautier  and  Chudeau,   "Missions  au  Sahara." 

'"Statesman's  Year-Book,"  1910,  1229.  Report  of  World  Missionary  Con- 
ference, Edinburgh,  1910,  Vol.  I. 

'The  best  recent  book  on  this  part  of  Africa,  fully  illustrated,  is  Lieut. 
C.  Jean's  "Les  Tuareg  du  Sud-Est  L'Air,"   Paris,  1909. 

•"Statesman's  Year-Book,"    1910,  804. 


28  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

millions,  and  Portuguese  Guinea  with  nearly  an  addi- 
tional million,  are  untouched  by  Protestant  missions, 
although  containing  some  forty  Roman  Catholic  stations 
with  perhaps  double  that  number  of  priests.^ 

Turning  now  to  East  Africa,  Abyssinia  together  with 
French  Somaliland,  British  Somaliland  and  Italian  So- 
maliland,  represent  another  great  unoccupied  area. 

The  larger  part  of  Somaliland  to  the  southeast 
and  on  the  Indian  Ocean  is  an  Italian  Protectorate 
having  double  the  area  of  Italy;  while  on  the  Red  Sea 
north  of  Abyssinia,  there  is  the  Italian  colony  of  Eritrea 
with  an  area  equal  to  four-fifths  of  Italy.  Between  the 
two  Italian  possessions  lie  French  Somaliland  and  British 
Somaliland;  the  former  with  a  population  of  180,000, 
the  latter  about  300,000,  mostly  nomadic  except  on  the 
coast,  where  considerable  towns  have  sprung  up  during 
the  British  occupation.^  French  Somaliland  is  important 
because  it  contains  the  harbor  terminus  (Jibuti)  of  the 
railway  running  inland  into  Abyssinia,  and  is  in  close 
touch  with  Aden.  All  of  Somaliland  is  comparatively 
barren,  and  the  population  is  almost  wholly  Mohammedan. 
Abyssinia  proper  is  for  the  most  part  a  high  table  land, 
where  the  fertility  and  general  conditions  of  life  are  more 
favorable,  yet  the  population  averages  only  about  twenty- 
five  to  the  square  mile.  The  towns  are  numerous,  but 
all  of  small  size.  The  most  important  are  Gondar 
(5,000) ;  Adua  (3,000)  ;  Addis  Adeba,  the  present  capital 
(35,000),  and  Harar  (40,000).  The  total  area  is  over 
200,000  square  miles,  with  an  estimated  population  of 
9,000,000  to  11,000,000.  Abyssinia  is  an  independent 
kingdom  ruled  by  Menelik  II.     Its  political  institutions 

^Report  of  World  Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgh,   19*0,  Vol.   x. 
'"Statesman's  Year-Book,"   1910,   186. 


TTIR   IIKART  OF  TWO   COXTIXtXTS  2C) 

are  like  those  of  medieval  Europe.^  Since  the  conver- 
sion of  the  Abyssinians  to  Christianity  in  the  fourth  cen- 
tury, the  bulk  of  the  population  has  been  Christian 
(Alexandrian  and  Coptic).  There  is  a  large  Jewish 
population,  but  Islam  is  winning  its  way,  especially  in 
the  south. 2  Abyssinia  has  only  one  Protestant  mission 
station  at  Addis  Adcba. 

Other  regions,  smaller  in  area  although  not 
smaller  in  population,  both  in  Africa  and  in  Asia,  as  well 
as  in  the  island  world,  will  pass  before  us  later.  The 
survey  already  given,  however,  has  placed  before  us  the 
greater  unoccupied  areas  and  surely  proves  that  in  the 
evangelization  of  the  world,  the  Church  must  measure 
her  untouched  task  as  well  as  her  unfinished  task.  These 
are  regions  beyond  the  boundaries  of  all  mission  fields 
now  occupied,  but  are  not  beyond  the  care  and  love 
of  our  Heavenly  Father  and  are  within  the  bounds  of 
human  brotherhood.  Remembering  the  utter  destitution 
and  the  long  neglect  of  these  vast  areas  and  large  popu- 
lations, the  lines  written  on  seeing  Gordon's  statue  as  it 
stands  facing  the  great  desert  and  the  Sudan  at  Khar- 
toum, have  a  living  message : 

"The  strings  of  camels  come  in  single  file, 
Bearing  their  burdens  o'er  the  desert  sand; 

Swiftly  the  boats  go  plying  on  the  Nile, 
The  needs  of  men  are  met  on  every  hand. 

But  still  I  wait 

For  the  messenger  of  God  who  cometh  late. 


^"Statesman's  Year-Book,"  1910,  564. 

•Whole  tribes  of  Abyssinians  which  were  once  Christian,  and  still  bear 
Christian  names  have  become  Mohammedan  within  the  past  twenty  years. 
The  situation  is  alarming.  See  article  by  Dr.  £nno  Littman,  in  "Dcr 
Islam,"   (Strassburg),   Vol   i,   No.    1,   1910. 


30  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

"I  see  the  cloud  of  dust  rise  in  the  plain, 

The  measured  tread  of  troops  falls  on  the  ear; 

The  soldier  comes  the  Empire  to  maintain, 
Bringing  the  pomp  of  war,  the  reign  of  fear. 

But  still  I  wait; 

The  messenger  of  Peace,  he  cometh  late. 

"They  set  me  looking  o'er  the  desert  drear, 

Where  broodeth  darkness  as  the  deepest  night. 

From  many  a  mosque  there  comes  the  call  to  prayer; 
I  hear  no  voice  that  calls  on  Christ  for  light. 

But  still  I  wait 

For  the  messenger  of  Christ  who  cometh  late."^ 

*Anon.  in  Egyptian  Mission  News,  January-February,  1910. 


? 

fhmf 


ir 


STAT  IK    OF    CORDON 
At  KliartDiini. 


30 


SMALLER  AREAS  AND  UNREACHED 
MILLIONS 


3« 


***The  Husbandman  waiteth*— 
The  Husbandman?    Why? 

For  the  heart  of  one  servant 
Who  hears  not  His  cry. 

"*The  Husbandman  waiteth* — 
He  waiteth?     What  for? 

For  the  heart  of  one  servant 
To  love  Him  still  more. 

***The  Husbandman  waiteth* — 
*Long  patience*  hath  He — 

But  He  waiteth  in  hunger— 
OhI  is  it  for  thee?** 


— F.  M.  N. 


"It  is  overwhelming  to  think  of  the  vastness  of  the  harvest- 
field  when  compared  with  the  indolence,  indifference  and  unwil- 
lingness on  the  part  of  most  so-called  Christians,  to  become, 
even  in  a  moderate  degree,  laborers  in  the  same.  I  take  the 
rebuke  to  myself.  .  .  .  When  we  come  t«  die,  it  will  be  awful 
for  us,  if  we  have  to  look  back  on  a  life  spent  purely  on  self; 
but,  believe  me,  if  we  are  to  spend  our  life  otherwise,  we  must 
make  up  our  minds  to  be  thought  'odd'  and  'eccentric*  and  'unso- 
cial,' and  to  be  sneered  at  and  avoided.  .  .  .  The  usual  center  is 
SELF,  the  proper  center  is  GOD.  If,  therefore,  one  lives  for 
God,  one  is  'out  of  center'  or  'eccentric*  with  regard  to  the  people 
who  do  not." 

— Ion  Keith  Falconer,  in  letter  dated  June  12,  i88x. 


3« 


Chapter  II 

SMALLER   AREAS   AND  UNREACHED 
MILLIONS 

However  impressive  and  well-nigh  overwhelming  the 
survey  of  large  areas  wholly  untouched  by  missionary 
effort  already  given  may  be,  the  picture  would  not  be 
complete  without  adding  other  smaller  areas  and  islands 
also  wholly  unoccupied,  and  those  uncultivated  sections 
in  fields  generally  considered  occupied  where  millions 
of  people  are  still  utterly  unreached  and  wholly  out  of 
touch  with  present  missionary  effort. 

We  begin  with  Malaysia,  one  of  the  most  densely  popu- 
lated regions  of  the  world,  and  one  of  the  least  known 
to  the  average  student  of  missions.^  This  unoccupied 
field  is  not  barren  ground  but  has  rich  promise  of  fruit- 
fulness.  Shall  the  sowing  of  the  seed  be  postponed? 
And  shall  the  harvest  be  for  Islam  ?  On  the  eastern  half  of 
the  island  of  Sumatra,  together  with  the  islands  of  Banka 
and  Billiton,"  there  is  a  population  of  over  3,200.000,  almost 
equal   to  that  of   New   York  City,  untouched    by    mis- 

^Because  most  of  the  literature  is  in  the  Dutch  language.  Cf.  e.  g., 
"De  Zendingsceuw  voor  Nederlandsch  Oost-Indie,"  by  S.  Coolsma, 
Utrecht.    1901,  and   other  standard  works. 

'Letter  from  Baron  C.  W.  Th.  Van  Boetzelaar,  Dutch  Consul  for  Mis- 
sions,  to  Commission  No.  i,  World  Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgh, 
1910. 

33 


34  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

sions.^  The  Battaks  of  Western  Sumatra  won  for  Jesus 
Christ  from  animistic  heathenism  and  Islam  already  num- 
ber 47,729.^  The  district  of  Atjeh  in  the  north  is  famous 
as  the  battle  ground  between  the  Dutch  rulers  and  Mo- 
hammedan fanatics  for  many  decades.^  The  difficulties 
here  may  prove  greater  therefore  than  elsewhere  in  Su- 
matra, but  are  not  insurmountable. 

The  Central  and  Western  parts  of  the  islands  of  Borneo 
are  also  unoccupied,  and  400,000  souls  are  destitute  of 
the  Gospel.  The  population  is  mostly  pagan,  but  is  in 
danger  of  becoming  Moslem,  and  the  occupation  of  the 
field  is  therefore  urgent. 

Madura  Island,  northeast  of  Java,  together  with  Sum- 
bawa,  Flores,  Timor,  Bali  and  Lombok  Islands,  seem  small 
on  the  map,*  but  reveal  a  population  of  over  2,000,000 
who  are  without  any  Christian  missionary.  The  Eastern 
portion  of  Timor  is  under  the  Portuguese  government. 
Its  growing  importance  may  be  judged  from  the  fact 
that  the  harbor  of  Dilly  was  visited  in  one  year 
by  more  than  four  hundred  merchant  vessels.  Islam 
is  everywhere  prevalent  except  in  Bali  and  Lombok. 
These    two    remarkably    fertile    and    populous    islands 

^"Statesman's  Year-Book,"   1910,   1046. 

The  various  provinces  and  islands  are  given  as  follows: 

Area,  Dutch  sq.  m.  Population. 

Pelembang  and  Djambi   2526.7  783,259 

Lampong    District 533.3  1SS.080 

Benkoelen     433.3  201,515 

Padang    Lower    Districts    322.1  393,4S8 

Padang  Upper  Districts   409.6  402,093 

Atjeh     966.6  571,477 

Riouw   Archipelago    707.4  93,3i5 

Banka  and  Billiton   298.3  105,034 

6270.9  3,205,261 

^Report  of  World  Missionary  Conference,   Edinburgh,  1910,   Vol,   i. 
^Snouck  Hurgronje,  "De  Atjehers,"  2  vols.,  Batavia,  1895.     Ibid,  "Arabic 
en  Oost  Indie,"  Leiden,  1907.  *See  p.  126. 


r^ 


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s:<r" 


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— -^ 


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o--<: 


-  o 


SMALLER  AREAS  AND  UNREACHED  MILLIONS  35 

(together  they  have  a  population  of  523,535)  are 
the  only  places  in  Netherlands  India  where  Hinduism 
has  held  its  ground.^  Baron  van  Boetzelaar  writes: 
"Once  their  occupation  was  interdicted  by  the  Dutch 
Government  because  a  missionary  was  murdered  there, 
but  now  it  is  probable  the  government  would  offer  no 
objection  to  any  mission  that  would  occupy  the  islands." 
The  religion  of  Bali  and  part  of  Lombok  is  Hinduism; 
the  other  part  of  Lombok  is  Mohammedan.  No  transla- 
tions of  the  Bible  appear  in  their  languages.^ 

The  same  authority  describes  the  whole  central  and 
southern  part  of  Celebes,  stretching  from  Posso  Lake 
to  the  extreme  south,  as  at  present  wholly  unoccupied. 
This  part  of  the  island  contains  a  population  of  perhaps 
200,000.  The  Island  of  Ceram  in  the  Moluccas  has  no 
Protestant  mission  station.  In  Northern  and  Central 
Papua,  or  New  Guinea,  the  main  approach  to  which  is 
the  Fly  River,  there  is  an  unknown  population  wholly 
unreached.  The  opening  of  this  great  area  was  the  un- 
fulfilled dream  of  the  martyr,  James  Chalmers. 

In  the  Philippine  Islands,  the  Sulu  Archipelago,  the 
Palawan  and  Tawi-tawi  groups  are  wholly  unoccupied, 
with  a  total  population  of  about  127,000,  nearly  all  Mo- 
hammedans ;  also  the  Island  of  Samar  with  a  population 
of  266,000.^  In  the  Solomon  Island  group,  Buka  and 
Bougainville,  with  a  combined  population  of  60,000;* 
Socotra  Island,  south  of  the  Arabian  peninsula,  once 
Christian  and  now  wholly  Moslem,  are  both  untouched 
territories. 

^Letter  from  Baron  van  Boetzelaar.  S.  Coolsma,  "De  Zcndingseeuw," 
864,    gives  the  population    i,36o,(XX). 

^Letter  from   Baron   van   Boetzelaar. 

*J.  B.  Rodgers,  in  letter  to  Commission  No.  i.  World  Missionary  Con- 
ference, Edinburgh,   1910. 

*Rev.  H.  Tillmann,  in  letter  to  Commission  No.  i,  World  Missionary 
Confereace,  Edinburgh,  igio. 


;^6  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

The  Continent  of  Asia  has  in  addition  to  the  large 
areas  and  populations  already  surveyed  the  following 
smaller  areas  without  mission  stations.  East  of  the  Jor- 
dan, in  Syria,  there  is  a  section  of  country  with  over 
500,000  inhabitants  and  no  missionary  work  among  them ; 
the  Sinaitic  Peninsula  has  a  population  of  50,000  and  is 
unoccupied.  The  Province  of  Khorasan  in  Persia  has 
no  resident  missionary,  nor  has  Luristan,  or  Kuhistan, 
and  the  entire  Persian  Gulf  littoral  on  the  Persian  side 
from  Muhammerah  to  Karachi,  India,  a  distance  of  over 
nine  hundred  miles  with  important  harbor  towns  and  a 
population  of  at  least  500,000,  has  no  mission  station. 

Northern  Oman  together  with  the  coast  along  the  west- 
ern side  of  the  Persian  Gulf  has  a  large  number  of  villages 
and  cities.  Only  the  coast  towns  thus  far  have  been  visited 
by  missionaries  and  colporteurs  and  the  people  would 
welcome  medical  missions,  yet  there  is  no  station  in  the 
entire  area  of  this  map.^  It  is  only  by  studying  maps 
on  a  large  scale  in  detail  that  the  pathos  of  destitution 
in  these  smaller  areas  becomes  real.  God  does  not  deal 
with  mankind  in  the  mass,  but  as  individuals,  nor  should 
we.  "The  masses  consist  all  of  units,"  says  Carlyle, 
"every  unit  of  whom  has  his  own  heart  and  sorrows, 
stands  covered  with  his  own  skin,  and  if  you  prick  him 
he  will  bleed."  Each  individual  has  his  sin  and  sorrow 
and  burden  and  therefore  needs  the  Christ. 

There  are  still  other  "regions  beyond"  the  light  of  the 
Gospel.  In  the  Malay  Peninsula,  the  districts  of  Kedah, 
Trengganu,  and  Kelantan  have  recently  come  under  the 
British  flag,  yet  the  entire  population  of  perhaps  1,000,000 
souls  are  untouched  by  missions.^ 

*  See  map  op.  84. 

*  Letter  to   Commission,   World   Missionary    Conf.,    Edinburgh,    191 0. 


laK-nn^V^/    U       R     >li     A    K.D.;  t..4    '-•la  C  ^         ^X^T  JyW».Ug  chnu  >r,nv- 


l.unngl'mhniiii 

/,   ''^   '      J/      Tonff  king 
J'      '  ^    VrlU  finh 


Hai  nan 


\RTrr,     ,  M......^l'f;l:.  ,        _^       . 

Miitnra.lit/  N,.n.  kl.«y\^     <•  .^       \,^„„ 


j   nai 


L""   r"    <,K"h«'»W      .-O  P 


French  In<l..Cliinn  nn.l  Sumatra  have  a  combined  area  of  apj.r  .ximately  317.000 
square  miles  and  a  population  of  ji. 500.000.  IndoChina  is  practically  without  Protes- 
tant missionary  work,  having  only  one  mission,  in  the  city  of  Song- Rhone.  (See  pages 
22.  23,  33,  83.)  36 


SMALLER  AREAS   AND  UNREACHED  MILLIONS  3/ 

An  article  appeared  recently  in  the  Geographical 
Journal  setting  forth  the  importance  of  these  states  and 
their  undeveloped  resources.  They  belong  to  the  least 
known  parts  of  Malaysia.' 

"At  present  Kelantan,  Trengganu,  and  Kedah  may  be 
distincruished  by  the  varying  degrees  of  our  ignorance 
concerning  them.  The  best  known  is  Kelantan,  which 
lies  to  the  north  of  Pahang  and  east  of  Perak,  and  which 
fronts  on  the  China  sea." 

"In  the  absence  of  any  census  no  accurate  return  of 
the  population  is  possible.  Estimates  have  varied  be- 
tween loo.ooo  (Pallegoix)  and  600,000  (Swettenham). 
From  recent  poll-tax  returns  the  number  of  adult  males 
appears  to  be  close  upon  60,000.  If  it  be  assumed  that 
there  are  as  many  adult  females  and  three  times  as  many 
children,  the  total  population  works  out  at  300,000.  This 
estimate  Mr.  Graham  considers  to  be  under  rather  than 
above  the  true  figure.  Kota  Bharu,  the  capital  and  the 
only  town  of  any  consequence  in  Kelantan,  has  a  popu- 
lation of  about  10,000.  The  town  is  well  provided  with 
metalled  roads,  and  evidence  of  increased  prosperity  and 
improved  administration  is  afforded  by  the  erection 
within  the  last  three  years  of  over  one  hundred  and  fifty 
substantial  houses,  mostly  for  use  as  shops.  The  roads 
have  not  yet  extended  any  considerable  distance  into  the 
interior,  but  there  is  telegraphic  communication  between 
Kota  Bharu  and  both  Bangkok  and  Penang,  while  the 
capital  can  also  boast  of  a  telephone  service.  The  prin- 
cipal streets  are  provided  with  paved  side  walks,  and  are 
lighted  by  lamps  at  night." 

Mr.  Charles  E.  G.  Tisdall  of  the  British  and  Foreign 
Bible  Society,  Singapore,  writes:  "I  would  direct  atten- 

^Geographicol  Jourr.al,   April,    1909. 


38  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

tion  especially  to  both  the  old  and  new  Federated  Malay 
States  and  Singapore  as  regards  the  Mohammedan  work, 
for  not  one  of  the  many  missionaries  working  in  these 
places  does  any  work  at  all  among  the  many  thousands 
of  Mohammedans.  It  seems  a  crying  shame  that  the 
Mohammedans  here  should  have  been  neglected  so  long, 
when  there  are  none  of  the  great  difficulties  to  hinder 
mission  work  at  the  outset  such  as  are  met  with  in 
many  other  countries  under  Moslem  rule,  for  example,  in 
Arabia  and  Persia."^ 

Turning  from  Asia  to  Africa  and  Madagascar,  we 
find  there  also  areas  smaller  than  the  vast  Sudan,  but 
equally  uncultivated  and  uncared  for,  awaiting  the  pio- 
neer plowman  and  the  sower  of  the  Gospel  seed. 

In  the  nine  northern  provinces  of  Madagascar  with 
a  population  of  about  500,000,  only  two  missionaries  are 
located,  north  of  the  parallel  of  18°  N.  lat.,  going  four 
hundred  miles  north,  there  is  only  one  station  on  the 
east  coast  and  no  station  on  the  west  coast  or  inland.- 

On  the  western  side  of  the  Niger  River,  West  Africa, 
and  on  the  region  north  of  the  Cross  River,  there  are 
fields  wholly  unevangelized  and  many  of  them  not  even 
explored.  The  country  is  being  opened  up  by  the  govern- 
ment, but,  to  quote  the  expression  of  one  missionary, 
"Missions  creep  after  it  like  snails  after  an  express 
train. "^  The  result  is  that  in  the  newly-opened  terri- 
tories the  advent  of  the  white  man  is  not  associated  with 


^Letter  to  Commission.  No.  i,  World  Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgh, 
1910. 

^Concerning  the  Moslem  population  and  the  spread  of  Islam  in  Mada- 
gascar, see  Gabriel  Ferrand,  "Les  Mussulmans  a  Madagascar."  2  vols., 
Paris,   1891. 

'Report  of  World  Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgh,  1910,  Vol.  I,  and 
Statistical   Atlas   of    Christian   Missions,    Plate   XX. 


SMALLER  AREAS  AND  UNREACHED  MILLIONS  39 

the  coming  of  Jesus  Christ,  but  with  commerciaUsm 
together  with  the  greed  and  vices  of  the  West.^ 

Portuguese  territory,  south  of  the  Zambesi,  is  very 
inadequately  occupied,  while  north  of  the  Zambesi  there  is 
practically  no  mission  work  whatever  in  this  field.  It 
is  also  comparatively  neglected  by  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church."-  As  regards  the  Portuguese  Congo,  or  Angola, 
a  district  including  250,000  square  miles  and  perhaps  a 
population  of  7,000,000,  the  very  sparsity  of  the  popula- 
tion calls  for  a  larger  number  of  missionaries,  and  yet 
throughout  this  great  region  there  are  extensive  districts 
where  the  Gospel  has  never  yet  been  carried.^  In  the 
Belgian  Congo  there  are  also  several  districts  wholly 
outside  of  present  missionary  efrort.*  Between  Baringa 
station  of  the  "Regions  Beyond  Missionary  Union"  with 
only  five  missionaries,  and  Ibanshi  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  of  the  United  States  (South),  with  four  mission- 
aries, is  a  distance  of  over  four  hundred  miles  and  there 
is  no  mission  station  between.  From  Bolobo  on  the  Congo 
to  Lake  Tanganyika,  one  can  travel  for  nine  hundred 
miles  without  coming  to  a  mission  station. 

Tv.o  other  districts  have  already  been  treated  in 
Chapter  I.  but  require  further  mention. 

The  so-called  Ivory  Coast,  a  French  colonial  posses- 


*Rcport  of  World  Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgh,  1910,  Vol.  I.  and 
Statistical   Atlas   of    Christian    Missions,    Plate    XX. 

'Report  of  World  Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgh,  1910,  Vol.  I,  and 
Statistical    Atlas    of    Christian    Missions,    Plate    XX. 

'Report  of  World  Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgli,  1910,  Vol.  I,  and 
Statistical    Atlas   of    Christian    Missions,    Plate    XX. 

*See  an  important  article  on  this  region  by  E.  Torday,  entitled  "Land 
and  Peoples  of  the  Kasai  Basin"  with  large  map  in  the  Geographical 
Journal,  July.  1910.  He  writes  as  an  explorer.  Compare  with  map  in' 
Statistical  Atlas  of  Christian  Missions  to  gain  a  right  conception  of  this 
vast  unevangehzcd  arta. 


40  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

sion,  with  an  area  of  200,000  square  miles  and  an  esti- 
mated population  of  3,000,000,  has  no  Protestant  mis- 
sions. The  ports  of  this  colony  are  visited  by  the  liners 
of  two  French,  one  British,  one  German,  and  one  Belgian 
shipping  company.  It  is  proposed  to  create  a  port  and 
railway  at  Bassam  at  an  expense  of  about  10,000,000 
francs.  The  works  are  in  progress,  and  from  Abijean, 
on  the  north  side  of  the  lagoon,  the  railway  is  being 
pushed  inland.  Telegraph  lines  connect  the  principal 
towns  and  extend  to  adjoining  colonies.  Telephonic  com- 
munication exists  between  Bassam,  Bingerville,  the  capi- 
tal, and  other  places. 

Yet,  with  all  this  material  progress,  French  Guinea, 
and  Portuguese  Guinea,  with  the  coast  of  Sene- 
gambia,  have  no  Protestant  missions.  The  latter  has  a 
population  of  820,000;  the  former  of  over  2,000,000. 
The  centers  of  population  are  Konakry,  the  capital,  Boke, 
Dubreka,  Timbo,  and,  in  Portuguese  territory,  Bissau.^ 

Concerning  the  French  Congo,  which  has  an  area  two 
and  a  half  times  that  of  France  and  a  population  of 
perhaps  10,000,000,  we  read:  "Mission  work  was  begun 
here  by  the  American  Presbyterians,  who,  after  the  acqui- 
sition of  the  land  by  France,  handed  over  some  of  their 
stations  to  the  Paris  Society,  which  has  since  established 
two  other  principal  stations.  These  stations  are  placed 
along  the  navigable  part  of  the  Ogowe,  and  reach  only 
250  miles  from  the  coast.  They  touch  several  tribes, 
of  which  the  most  important  is  the  Fan  tribe,  and  M. 
Allegret  remarks  that  if  this  tribe  could  be  won  for 
Christianity,  it  would  form  a  strong  bulwark  against  the 
advance  of  Islam."^     But  the  whole  of  the  vast  interior 

^''Statesman's   Year-Book."    1910.    807. 

•Report  of  World  Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgh,  1910,  Vol.  I. 


SMALLKR  AKKAS   AND   UNREACHED   MILLIONS  4I 

is  absolutely  unreached.  The  hindrance  has  been  chiefly 
lack  of  men  and  means.  The  advance  of  commerce  into 
the  interior,  the  southward  spread  of  Islam,  and  the  pos- 
sibility of  an  atheistic  attitude  on  the  part  of  the  Govern- 
ment, constitute  the  dangers  ahead,  but  at  present  the 
way  is  open  for  advance. 

In  Nigeria,  as  we  have  seen  in  Chapter  I  and  as  is 
evident  on  the  map,  about  two-thirds  of  the  field  is 
absolutely  untouched.  To  man  even  tw^o  bases  in  each 
province  would  require  at  least  forty-eight  missionaries 
and  double  that  number  of  native  Christians,  while  at 
present  there  are  altogether  only  thirty-four  male  mis- 
sionaries, very  unequally  distributed.^  The  Alohamme- 
dans  are  steadily  pushing  into  the  pagan  districts,  while 
the  British  Government  unfortunately  prohibits  the  evan- 
gelization of  Mohammedans  by  excluding  the  mission- 
aries from  pagan  districts  into  which  Islam  has  access. - 
Only  a  small  proportion  of  the  people  can  read  and  the 
only  Scripture  translation  available  is  the  New  Testa- 
ment in  Hausa  and  Nupe,  while  there  are  two  principal 
and  twenty-three  lesser  languages  into  which  no  Scripture 
portion  has  yet  been  translated.^ 

North  Africa  is  nominally  an  occupied  mission  field, 
and  yet  work  was  only  begun  in  the  Barbary  States 
within  the  last  thirty  years,  and  is  represented  to-day  by 
a  few  isolated  stations  and  at  most  a  handful  of  workers 
in  the  largest  centers.  Southern  Tripoli  and  the  district 
of  Oran  in  Algeria  are  practically  unoccupied,  as  there 

'Report  of  World  Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgh,  1910,  Vol.  I,  and 
Statistical   Atlas  of   Christian   Missions. 

-Itc;)  .rt  of  World  Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgh,  1910,  Vol.  1;  Mis- 
sionary Review  of  the  World,  July.   1909,  393-395- 

'Report  of  World  Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgh,  1910,  Vol.  I;  see 
also  Chapter  VII  of  this   volume. 


42  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

is  only  one  station  in  each,  and  Morocco,  south  and  east 
of  the  Atlas  Range,  is  almost  wholly  an  uncultivated 
area.^  The  lower  half  of  Tunis  has  no  mission  station. 
The  station  furthest  south  is  at  Kairwan,  opened  by  the 
North  Africa  Mission  in  1897.  At  present  this  strategic 
center  of  Moslem  learning  and  propagandism,  with  a 
population  of  nearly  30,000,  has  one  married  missionary 
and  a  single  woman.^  The  city  has  thirty  mosques  and 
is  a  great  center  for  pilgrimage.^  From  Kairwan  one 
could  travel  directly  southeast  for  two  thousand  two 
hundred  miles  before  reaching  Upoto  on  the  Congo. 
And  this  is  the  nearest  mission  station  in  that  direction! 
Could  any  statement  give  a  clearer  idea  of  the  vast  areas 
in  the  Dark  Continent  that  still  await  the  light  of  the 
Gospel  ? 

We  now  pass  to  the  consideration  of  some  of  the  fields 
generally  considered  as  occupied.  Chapter  I  and  the 
preceding  paragraphs  of  this  chapter  have  brought  be- 
fore us  an  aggregate  population  in  Asia  and  Malaysia 
of  at  least  sixty  millions  and  in  Africa  of  seventy  millions, 
w^holly  untouched  by  missionary  effort  of  the  Protestant 
Churches. 

There   is    another   field   of   survey   which    cannot    in 

^Report  of  World  Missionary  Conference,   Edinburgh,   1910,  Vol.   I. 

^"North  Africa,"  June,  1910,  98:  "This  autumn  Mrs.  Short  and  I  recom- 
menced visiting  the  tents  near  the  town.  On  the  whole,  we  had  a  very 
good  hearing  given  our  message.  The  farthest  point  we  reached  was 
Hadjeb,  forty  miles  away." 

'The  city  is  located  thirty  miles  southwest  of  Susa,  with  which  it  is 
connected  by  rail.  Founded  A.  D.  670,  it  has  played  a  large  part  in  the 
history  of  Islam  in  North  Africa,  and  is  the  Mecca  of  the  Barbary  States. 
Until  the  French  occupation,  access  was  forbidden  non-Mohammedans. 
It  has  thirty  mosques,  and  many  tombs  of  saints.  The  dead  are  brought 
from  afar  to  be  buried  in  this  holy  city.  The  Ukbah  Mosque  is  one  of 
the  most  magnificent  in  the  Moslem  world,  and  contains  430  marble 
columns. 


3a 


7  ;i-^ 


—      i  t  c 


■:  2-- 


5  ■'■  — 


SMALLER  AKEAS  AND  UNREACHED  MILLIONS  43 

justice  be  omitted,  and  which  is  in  some  respects  of 
almost  greater  importance  than  the  one  already 
presented. 

Wedged  in  between  mission  fields  which  are  often 
themselves  inadequately  occupied  and  sparsely  cultivated, 
or  bordering  on  mission  fields  which  are  limited 
to  the  coast,  these  areas  and  populations  do  not  stand  out 
so  distinctly  on  the  map,  and  yet  they  are  as  destitute 
as  Tibet  or  Afghanistan.  Their  location,  often  entirely 
surrounded  by  spheres  of  missionary  activity  or  influence, 
only  adds  to  the  pathos  of  the  situation.  They  deserve 
special  treatment  also  because  provision  for  them  can  be 
more  economically  made  in  most  cases,  both  as  regards 
men  and  money,  than  for  the  wholly  unoccupied  fields. 
The  early  and  strong  reinforcement  of  adjoining  missions 
would  be  the  simplest,  wisest  and  most  effective  plan  for 
the  evangelization  of  most  of  these  areas  so  inadequately 
occupied.  Careful  investigations  "lead  to  the  conviction 
that  in  the  aggregate  the  neglected  and  destitute  areas 
which  lie  within,  or  closely  adjoin  the  spheres  of  influence 
of  existing  missionary  agencies,  present  the  most  ex- 
tensive, the  most  pressing  and  the  most  pathetic  need  of 
the  missionary  world."^  A  complete  survey  would  per- 
haps show  that  the  total  population  of  these  areas  is 
larger  than  the  total  populations  hitherto  enumerated. 

There  are  difficulties,  however,  in  dealing  with  these 
limited  and  particular  areas,  both  because  it  is  hard  to 
define  a  given  mission's  sphere  of  influence  or  responsi- 
bility, and  because  a  comprehensive  survey  of  all  the 
occupied  mission  fields  of  the  world,  with  a  view  to  lo- 
cating unoccupied  sections,  has  never  yet  been  under- 
taken.    In  many  cases  missions  have  not  even  fixed  the 

^Report  of  World  Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgh,  1910,  Vol.  i. 


44  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

boundaries  of  their  field.  In  other  cases  they  have 
claimed  large  areas  which  they  have  never  even  visited. 
The  ratio  sometimes  suggested  of  so  many  thousand  of 
the  population  to  each  foreign  missionary  is  equally  un- 
satisfactory, especially  when  applied  without  distinction 
on  the  one  hand  to  sparsely  occupied  and  distant  lands, 
and  on  the  other,  to  those  where  the  population  is  dense 
and  accessible.  Even  where  such  a  ratio  as  was  sug- 
gested at  the  Madras  Decennial  Conference  of  25,000 
non-Christians  to  each  foreign  missionary  is  adopted,  the 
question  arises  whether  the  presence  and  work  of  native 
Christians  should  not  be  the  main  factor  in  the  problem 
of  distribution  and  occupation.  All  that  is  possible  here, 
therefore,  is  to  give  a  summary  of  present  conditions  in 
certain  fields  which  are  typical  of  the  greatness  of  the 
need  everywhere  in  the  missionary  world. 

Another  point  needs  emphasis  before  we  proceed.  It 
is  evident  that  the  question  as  to  which  missionary  agency 
should  enter  in  and  occupy  a  given  territory  cannot  here 
be  considered,  and  should  not  be  allowed  to  obtrude  it- 
self. The  question  is  so  difficult  that  it  needs  careful 
consideration  by  missionary  boards  and  councils. 
No  statement,  therefore,  relating  to  areas  unoccupied 
by  missionaries  in  mission  fields  covered  by  this  survey 
must  be  taken  in  the  sense  of  a  general  advertisement 
of  "areas  to  let"  for  individuals  or  societies,  without 
due  regard  to  those  great  principles  of  comity  and  Chris- 
tian statesmanship  which  are  to-day  a  ruling  factor  in 
the  conduct  of  Christian  Missions.^  These  same  prin- 
ciples apply  to  the  countries  wholly  unoccupied,  and  must 
not  be  forgotten. 

*0n  Missionary  Comity  in  the  occupation  of  new  fields  or  near  the  bor- 
ders of  missionary  territory,  see  Report  of  World  Missionary  Conference, 

Edinburgh,  1910,  Vol.  VIII. 


SMALLER  AREAS  AND  UNREACHED  MILLIONS  45 

Not  only  is  the  question  of  comity  related  to  the  occu- 
pation of  the  areas  now  under  consideration,  but  the 
question  of  concentration  or  diffusion  as  the  true  policy 
of  a  mission  board  or  a  mission  station  is  also  involved 
in  our  consideration  of  these  needy  areas.  We  begin 
with  Japan. 

The  semi-centennial  of  Protestant  missions  in  Japan 
was  celebrated  by  a  conference  in  Tokio,  October  5-10, 
1909,  and  the  achievements  of  the  past  fifty  years  in 
evangelization,  in  self-support  of  the  native  church,  and 
in  the  deepening  influence  of  Christianity  and  its  wide- 
spread effects  are  surely  full  of  encouragement.  But 
how  large  is  tlie  task  still  before  us  in  Japan.  Out  of 
a  population  of  52,000,000  people,  only  150,000  Chris- 
tians (total  number  of  Protestant  communicants,  67,- 
043),*  and  out  of  less  than  eight  hundred  missionaries, 
six  hundred  and  fifty-six,  are  found  in  ten  cities,  in  which 
also  are  five-sevenths  of  all  the  Japanese  workers  and 
churches.  A  large  proportion  of  the  missionary  body, 
one  paper  states,  is  grouped  around  the  large  cities, 
while  the  masses,  the  industrial  and  agricultural  classes, 
are  in  many  provinces  untouched  and  unapproached.- 

''Beginning  at  the  two  open  ports  in  1859,  Protestant 


'Statistical   Atlas    of    Cliristian    Missions,    65. 

^Thc  Omi  Mustard  Seed,  Japan,  Vol.  Ill,  No.  6.  "Decentralization  in 
the  mission  field  itself  is  another  pressing  problem.  According  to  figures, 
quoted,  apparently,  as  authoritative,  in  the  Japan  Evangelist  for  Decem- 
ber, 1909,  it  IS  said  that  out  of  less  than  800  Protestant  missionaries  m 
Japan,  656  are  'congested  in  only  ten  cities.'  Further,  we  are  told  that 
'five-sevenths  of  all  Japanese  workers  and  churches'  are  connected  with 
the  ten  cities  already  mentioned;  and  this  (even  if  the  figures  are  only 
approximately  correct)  is  a  sad  confession  of  the  failure  of  the  various 
missions  and  churches  to  reach  the  bulk  of  the  nat'on.  Fully  seventy-five 
per  cent,  of  the  total  population  live  in  villages,  and  the  agricultural 
classes  are  the  backbone  of  the  Japanese  nation."— C A urrA  Missionary 
Rexneu'.  June,   19x0,  374. 


46  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

missionaries  have  steadily  progressed  in  the  occupation 
of  the  country,  until  to-day  every  one  of  the  forty-eight 
provinces  has  been  entered.  The  restrictions  upon  living 
outside  the  treaty  ports  at  first  necessitated  the  concen- 
tration of  the  missionary  force  in  the  larger  cities.  Even 
yet  we  find  that  about  fifty-seven  per  cent,  of  the  mis- 
sionary body  reside  in  eight  cities,  namely:  Tokio,  287; 
Kobe,  78 ;  Osaka,  60 ;  Sendai,  48 ;  Yokohama,  45 ;  Kioto, 
43;  Nagoya,  31;  and  Nagasaki  30."^  It  is  true  that 
fully  one-half  of  those  in  these  larger  cities  are  engaged 
in  educational  or  literary  work,  or  in  the  general  ad- 
ministration of  mission  work,  but  surely  the  work  of 
general  evangelization  should  not  take  second  place  to 
any  other  task.  Table  I  in  Appendix  C  shows  very 
clearly  that  there  are  large  districts  in  Japan  where  the 
missionary  occupation,  even  counting  the  work  of  native 
Christians,  is  utterly  inadequate,  and  that  there  are  re- 
gions practically  untouched  and  areas  unoccupied.  The 
district  of  Fukushima,  for  example,  with  a  population 
of  1,175,224,  has  only  one  mission  station;  Okayama  dis- 
trict, with  a  population  of  1,188,244,  has  only  one  sta- 
tion and  three  ordained  missionaries,  while  Chiba  district, 
although  it  has  three  stations,  has  a  total  of  only  six 
missionaries,  including  women,  for  a  population  of 
1,316,547.  To  quote  again  from  the  World  Missionary 
Conference  Report :  "The  regions  most  neglected  hitherto 
are,  broadly  speaking,  the  whole  Japan  sea-coast  of  the 
main  island  and  large  portions  of  the  northeastern  prov- 
inces. The  results  in  proportion  to  the  effort  put  forth 
have  seemed  most  meagre  in  the  prefectures  of  Niigata, 
Fukui,  Toyama,  Ishikawa,  Tochigi,  Shimane,  Saitama, 
Nara,  and  Oita." 

'Report  of  World  Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgh,  1910,  Vol.  I. 


SMALLER  AREAS  AND  UNREACHED  MILLIONS  47 

From  Japan  we  turn  to  India. 

Here  the  unoccupied  fields  of  Protestant  missionary- 
effort  have  been  more  carefully  investigated  than  in  the 
case  of  any  other  field. ^  "The  missionary  literature  of 
the  last  decade,"  says  the  World  Missionary  Conference 
Report,  "has  thrown  a  vivid  light  upon  the  fact  that  in 
India — quite  apart  from  those  fields  in  which  the  present 
missionary  staff  is  insufficient  for  the  accomplishment  of 
the  work  begun  in  them — there  are  vast  districts  which 
must  be  described  as  unoccupied  or  not  effectively 
occupied.  .  .  .  Large  portions  of  the  United  Provinces,  of 
Eastern  Bengal,  Chota  Nagpur,  Southern  Assam,  the  hill 
forests  of  Burma,  the  Central  Provinces,  and  the  Central 
Indian  Agency,  and,  above  all,  the  Native  States,  are  abso- 
lutely unmanned.  .  .  .  Two  generations  have  passed  away 
since  the  mission  began  work  in  some  of  these  sections, 
yet  scarcely  one-third  of  the  population  have  had  the 
Gospel  made  known  to  them."^  The  diagram  on  page  56 
shows  clearly  in  the  case  of  the  United  Provinces  that 
in  1906,  out  of  fifty  districts,  no  less  than  seventeen  were 
still  without  any  resident  ordained  missionary ;  in  other 
words,  that  after  a  century  of  Christian  missions,  there 
were  then  still  16,000,000  of  people  in  these  provinces 
without  an  ordained  foreign  missionary.  "The  real  mean- 
ing of  these  figures  will  be  understood  better  if  put  thus," 

•"The  Unoccupied  Fields  of  India,"  by  G.  S.  Eddy,  Missionary  Review 
of  the  World,  April,  1905.  "Unoccupied  Fields  in  Central  India."  Pam- 
phlet by  Dr.  J.  Fraser  Campbell,  Rutlam,  1906.  "Unoccupied  Fields 
of  Protestant  Missionary  EflFort  in  Bengal."  Pamphlet  by  Rev.  H.  Ander- 
son, Calcutta,  1904.  "The  Unoccupied  Fields  in  the  United  Provmces." 
Pamphlet  by  J.  J.  Lucas,  based  on  this  pamphlet,  Cawnpore,  1905.  Unoc- 
cupied Fields,  United  Provinces,"  by  Rev.  W.  E.  S.  Holland,  Church 
Missionary  Intelligencer,  August,  1906,  5;>  "India  and  Missions,"  by  V. 
S.  Azariah.  Chapter  XII.  "Unoccupied  Fields  in  Rajputana,"  by  Rev.  W. 
Bonnar. 

^'Report   of  World   Missionary   Conference,   Edinburgh,   1910,  Vol.   I. 


48  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

says  W.  E.  S.  Holland.  "In  these  districts  there  is  a  popu- 
lation equal  to  that  of  England  (excluding  the  six  coun- 
ties of  London,  Lancashire,  Yorkshire,  Durham,  Essex 
and  Stafford),  to  which  no  ordained  foreign  missionary- 
has  yet  been  sent.  No  missionary  to  a  population  equal 
to  that  of  thirty-five  English  counties,  almost  wholly 
heathen!"^  The  situation  has  changed  somewhat  for 
the  better  since  this  paper  was  written,  but  it  still  is 
bad  enough. 

In  Central  India  in  the  group  of  native  states 
bounded  on  the  northwest  by  Rajputana  and  the  LTnited 
Provinces,  on  the  East  by  Bengal  Presidency,  and  on 
the  south  by  the  Central  Provinces,  there  are  also  un- 
occupied areas.  The  two  Political  Agencies  of  Bag- 
helkhand  and  Bundelkhand  are  examples.  The  first  has 
an  area  of  about  14,000  square  miles  and  a  population 
of  1,555,024.  The  latter  has  an  area  of  9,851  square 
miles  and  a  population  of  1,308,327.  This  latter  Political 
Agency  has  one  mission  station.  Taking  these  two  areas 
together  we  have  a  population  greater  than  the  whole  of 
the  New  England  States,  except  Massachusetts,  and  an 
area  nearly  equal  to  four  of  them  combined,  with  less 
than  a  half  dozen  workers.^  Gwalior  State  has  a  popu- 
lation of  over  1,000,000  and  has  only  one  mission  sta- 
tion. Bhopal  Agency,  nearly  as  large  as  Bulgaria,  with 
1,267,526  souls,  has  only  two  mission  stations.^  The  char- 
acter of  the  problem  and  the  great  need  for  a  large  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  workers  is  evident  from  the  con- 
cluding paragraph  in  Dr.  Campbell's  pamphlet.  He  says : 
"As  only  three  per  cent  of  the  people  in  all  Central  India 

^"Unoccupied  Fields,  United  Provinces,  India,"  Church  Missionary  InteUi- 
gencer,  August,  1906. 
*J.  Fraser  Campbell,  "Unoccupied  Fields  in  Central  India,"  5. 
•Ibid.,  8. 


SMALLER  AREAS  AND  UNREACHED  MILLIONS  49 

are  able  to  read  and  write,  and  the  adjoining  states  are 
probably  as  illiterate,  it  is  manifest  that  the  evangeliza- 
tion of  these  millions  must  depend  on  the  living  voice."'- 
The  unreached  millions  in  Bengal  are  so  many  and  the 
destitution  of  some  of  its  provincial  divisions  is  so  acute, 
that  we  refer  to  Table  II  in  Appendix  C.  which  merits 
careful  study.  It  shows  that  there  are  no  less  than  thirty- 
four  districts  where  the  missionary  occupation  is  so  ut- 
terly inadequate  that  there  is  no  hope  for  speedy  evan- 
gelization. 

Mr.  Herbert  Anderson  in  his  careful  treatment  of  the 
whole  subject  comes  to  the  conclusion  that  "in  the  prov- 
ince of  Bengal  alone,  every  decade,  a  nation  twenty 
million  strong  passes  from  life,  through  death,  to  the 
just  judgment  seat  of  God  without  a  knowledge  of 
Christ."=^ 

In  regard  to  Sindh,  Western  India,  one  of  the 
least  known  provinces  and  most  needy,  we  are  told  that 
"the  Mohammedan  population,  seventy-six  per  cent  of 
the  whole,  are  chiefly  an  untouched  field. "^ 

Turning  from  Japan  and  India  with  their  pressing  and 
pathetic  needs,  to  China,  similar  conditions,  but  on  a  still 
larger  scale,  confront  us.  Its  enormous  population  equals 
the  aggregate  population  of  all  Japan,  Great  Britain,  Italy, 
the  United  States  of  America,  European  Russia,  Spain, 
Portugal,  France,  Austria  and  Canada.  Or,  to  use  an- 
other illustration,  "The  British  Museum  Reading  Room," 
we  are  told,  "contains  70,000  volumes,  while  the  whole 
library,  which  is  built  around  the  Reading  Room,  con- 

^J.  Eraser  Campbell,  "Unoccupied  Fields  in  Central  India,"   13. 

*H.  Anderson,  "Unoccupied  Fields  of  Protestant  Missionary  Effort  in 
Bengal,"  20. 

'A.  E.  Redman,  "Sindh  as  a  Mission  Field."  Church  Missionary  R^nfW 
November,  1909. 


50  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

tains  some  forty-four  miles  of  book-shelves  (shelves, 
not  cases),  containing  in  all  about  2,000,000  volumes. 
If  every  book  was  a  copy  of  one  of  the  Scriptures  in 
Chinese,  the  number  would  not  equal  the  circulation  of 
the  Scriptures  in  China  last  year.  If  every  book  was  a 
copy  of  the  Chinese  Bible,  it  would  need  200  such  libraries 
to  supply  each  Chinese  man,  woman,  and  child  with  a 
Bible.  It  would  cost  3,000,000  pounds  to  give  one  Script- 
ure only,  to  every  Chinese  throughout  the  Empire.  This 
is  but  part  of  the  problem  of  the  evangelization  of 
China."^ 

Once,  the  whole  of  this  Empire  of  seething  humanity, 
the  largest  field  in  the  world,  was  wholly  unoccupied. 
When  the  China  Inland  Mission  was  founded  in  1864, 
there  were  only  fifteen  Protestant  mission  stations  in 
China  with  about  2,000  converts.  To-day  that  Mission 
alone  has  205  stations,  and  769  sub-stations.  Every  prov- 
ince of  the  Empire  has  its  missions  with  a  total  of  2,027 
native  church  organizations  and  177,724  Protestant 
church  members.* 

But  the  unfinished  task  in  China  is  still  gigantic,  and 
the  unreached  populations  can  only  be  estimated  in 
millions.  Beginning  with  the  great  cities  as  strategic 
centers,  what  stronger  plea  for  "city  missions,"  what 
plea  more  eloquent  in  brevity  and  pathos  than  the  fact 
that  there  are  still  in  China  one  thousand  ftve  hundred 
and  fifty-seven  cities  without  missionaries. 

If  Christ,  "seeing  the  multitudes  was  moved  with  com- 
passion," what  must  He  think  of  these  cities  to-day  with- 
out any  one  to  witness  for  Him  and  in  His  name  heal 


^China's  Millions,  January,  1908. 

'Statistical   Atlas   of    Christian    Missions,    67. 


SMALLER  AREAS  AND  UNREACHED  MILLIONS  5I 

the  sick,  comfort  the  sorrowing;  and  bind  up  the  broken- 
hearted!^ 

But  the  condition  of  the  smaller  villages  and  of  the 
bulk  of  the  population  away  from  the  towns  is  no  less 
appalling  and  appealing.  From  the  table  given,  it  is 
clear  that  Ho-nan  Province  is  not  as  destitute  as  some 
others  in  respect  to  the  occupation  of  its  cities.  Yet 
this  province,  chosen  as  typical  with  a  population  nearly 
equal  to  that  of  all  France,  has  large  unreached  sections 
as  is  evident  from  the  striking  map  and  its  descriptive 
letter-press  opposite.  Surely,  after  the  careful  study  of 
even  one  such  a  section  of  China,  no  one  can  longer 
doubt  that  the  evangelization  of  the  Empire  is  only 
possible  by  a  large  increase  of  foreign  missionaries 
and  native  agencies.  "On  this  map  more  than 
1,846  cities,  towns  and  important  villages   are   located, 

Net  number  of     Cities  Cities 
walled  cities    with  mis-         without 
*Provinces.                                             in  province,     sionaries.    missionaries, 

Kwang-tung  93  28  64 

Fu-kien    60  45  15 

Che-kiang    79  52  27 

Kiang-su    7i  24  47 

Shantung    107  34  7Z 

Chili    155  2i  \i2 

Hu-peh   69  29  40 

Kiang-si   81  34  47 

Ngan-hwei    60  21  39 

Ho-nan   106  26  80 

Hunan  76  19  57 

Kan-su    104  13  9» 

Shcn-si    89  26  63 

Shan-si    loi  34  67 

Sze-chwan    414  45  369 

Yunnan  80  7  73 

Kwei-chau    134  6  128 

Kwang-si    116  7  109 

Sin-kiang  .18  2  36 

Total  2,033  476  X.S57 


52  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

while  there  are,  in  addition,  countless  numbers 
of  hamlets  and  villages  which  cannot  be  marked.  Though 
it  is  now  more  than  a  generation  since  the  first  Protestant 
missionaries  entered  the  province,  and  over  twenty 
years  since  the  first  permanent  station  was  opened,  the 
total  number  of  centers  occupied  by  all  societies  (out- 
stations  not  being  counted),  does  not  exceed  twenty- 
nine.  Here  lies  part  of  the  problem  of  the  evangelization 
of  China,  and  let  it  be  remembered  that  this  is  but  one 
of  the  nineteen  provinces  of  China  proper."^ 

The  careful  survey  of  the  needs  of  China  made  for  the 
World  Missionary  Conference  at  Edinburgh  sums  up 
the  situation  and  reveals  the  following  conditions : 

"While  all  the  provinces  and,  except  Tibet,  all  the  de- 
pendencies have  mission  stations,  there  are,  nevertheless, 
large  regions  practically  untouched.  Tibet,  as  elsewhere 
explained  in  detail,  is  unreached ;  Sin-kiang  has  but  three 
stations,  though  as  the  table  shows,  owing  to  its  sparse 
population,  it  has  a  larger  percentage  of  missionaries  to 
the  population  than  all  the  densely  inhabited  provinces 
save  Fu-kien,  Che-kiang,  and  Kiang-su;  and  Mongolia, 
equalling  in  area  six  Germanys  and  almost  as  large  as 
China  proper,  has  but  four  stations  and  ten  missionaries, 
plus  the  colportage  work  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society.  Remembering  that  this  vast  expanse  is  mainly 
what  two  Chinese  names  of  the  country  suggest,  'Sandy 
Waste'  and  'Rainless  Sea,'  we  may  find  this  not  so  re- 
grettable as  at  first  thought  it  may  appear,  though  the 
destitution  of  these  nomads  is  as  real  and  appalling  as 
that  of  dwellers  in  most  sparsely  settled  pastoral  regions. 
The  northern  half  of  Manchuria  is  without  a  missionary 

^China*s  Millions,  February,   1908,  27. 


SMALLER  AREAS  AND  UNREACHED  MILLIONS  53 

and  nearly  half  the  remainder  is  absolutely  unreached,  the 
southern  and  western  sections  alone  being  occupied.  One 
correspondent  from  this  more  favored  section  thinks  that 
two-thirds  of  the  population  in  his  field  have  not  even 
been  approached. 

"Of  the  eighteen  provinces  it  is  difficult  to  speak  at  all 
accurately  as  to  what  districts  are  wholly  without  the 
Gospel,  since  we  have  no  reports  of  itineration.  Appar- 
ently four-fifths  of  Kan-su,  Yun-nan,  Kwei-chau  and 
Kwangsi  are  not  only  absolutely  unreached,  but  are  likely 
to  remain  so  until  missionaries  are  near  enough  to  be 
accessible  to  the  people.  If  this  is  a  fair  estimate — prob- 
ably it  is  an  underestimate — the  Church  has  in  these  four 
sparsely  settled  provinces  a  field  as  large  almost  as  Burma 
and  Bengal  combined,  with  a  population  equalling  that 
of  the  Turkish  Empire  plus  Ceylon,  without  any  regular 
preaching  of  the  Gospel.  These  are,  perhaps,  the  largest 
sections  thus  untouched,  though  extensive  regions  in 
Sze-chwan  and  Shen-si  should  not  be  forgotten.  In  addi- 
tion, in  all  the  provinces,  there  are  many  and  populous 
districts  whose  inhabitants,  humanly  speaking,  are  not 
likely  to  hear  the  Gospel  unless  the  Church  makes  ade- 
quate provision  to  make  it  known.  Thus  in  Kwang-tung, 
the  first  province  to  receive  a  modern  missionary,  after 
more  than  a  century,  there  are  stretches  of  territory  in 
the  north,  west  and  south,  equalling  in  population  the 
entire  number  inhabiting  the  Pacific  Islands  and  the 
Philippines,  still  without  a  preacher.  Dr.  Fulton  reports 
that  within  140  miles  of  the  scene  of  Morrison's  labors, 
there  are  three  counties  containing  some  10,000  villages, 
averaging  250  inhabitants  each,  and  so  near  each  other 
that  in  some  cases  from  a  central  point,  600  villages 
may  be  counted  within  a  radius  of  five  miles.     In  hun- 


54  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

dreds  of  these,  no  missionary  or  Chinese  preacher  has 
ever  set  foot."^    How  long  shall  they  wait? 

To  complete  the  survey  of  the  unoccupied  fields  in 
the  Chinese  Empire,  one  word  must  be  added.  In  addi- 
tion to  the  areas  unreached,  there  is  in  China  a  class  un- 
reached, numbering  millions,  namely,  the  Moslems. 

"We  may  safely  say  that  the  Moslem  population 
of  China  is  certainly  equal  to  the  entire  popu- 
lation of  Algeria  or  Scotland  or  Ireland;  that  it  is  in 
all  probability  fully  equal  to  that  of  Morocco  and  numbers 
not  less  than  the  total  population  of  Egypt  or  Persia. 
A  few  millions  among  the  hundreds  of  millions  in  China 
may  not  seem  many,  but  if  we  think  of  a  community 

^Report  of  World  Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgh,  1910,  Vol.  I.      Cf. 

also  the  following  striking  table  from  the  same  report: 
Statistics   Relating  to  the  Missionary  Occupation  of  the  Chinese  Empire. 

Pop.  per  Mission  No.  people 
Area  in  sq.          No.  of          square       sta-     Mission-  per  mis- 
Province,           miles.         inhabitants.       mile.  tions.      anes.  sionary. 
Che-kiang...     36,670  22d   11,380,692  15th   316  9th  30  gth   301   6th  38^74 aoth 

Chi-li 115,800   8th   20,937,000  I oth    17212th  2611th   277  8th  75,585  x6th 

Fu-kien 46,32020th   22,876,540  8th   494     3d  42     3d   378   4th  60,52019th 

Ho-nan 67,94016th   35,316,800     3d   520     ad  33  6th    165  nth  214,041   4th 

Hu-nan 83,38010th   22,169,673   9th   26611th  1915th    184  9th  120,48710th 

Hu-pei 71,41014th   35,280,685   4th   492   4th  31    8th   280   7th  126,002  9th 

Kan-su 125,450   7th    10,385,37616th     8217th  1716th     7016th  148,363   8th 

Kiang-si ....      69,480 15th   26,532,125   6th   382   6th  37  4th    169 10th  156,995   6th 

Kiang-su....      38,60021st    13,980,23512th   362   7th  1914th    503    1st  27,79421st 

Kwang-si...      77,20012th     5,142,33020th     6718th  8  i8th     5017th  102,84713th 

Kwang-tung     99,970   9th   31,865,251    5th   319   8th  56    ist   471     2d  67,654 17th 

Kwei-chau. .      67,16017th     7,650,28218th    11414th  619th     2319th  332,621     1st 

Manchuria..    363,610   4th    16,000,000  nth     4419th  2412th    10714th  149,533   7th 

Mongolia... 1, 367,600    ist     2,600,00021st       2   22d  420th     1021st  260,000     3d 

Ngan-hwei..      54,81019th   23,670,314   7th   432   5th  2213th    12313th  111,22212th 

Shan-si 81,83011th    12,200,456  14th    14913th  35    sth    14512th  84,14115th 

Shan-tung..      55,97018th    38,247,900     2d    683    1st  32   7th    343    sth  111,51011th 

Shen-si 75,270 13th     8,450,18217th    11115th  2710th     95  iSth  88,94914th 

Sin-kiang. ..    550,340     2d     1,200,000   22d       221st  321st     1820th  66,66718th 

Sze-chwan...    218,480    5th    68,724,890    1st   31410th  47     2d    386     3d  178,044   5th 

Tibet 463,200     3d     6,500,00019th     1420th  

Yunnan 146,680   6th    12,324,57413th     8416th  917th     3918th  316,0x5     2d 


SMALLER  AREAS  AND  UNKEACllEU  MILLIONS  55 

equal  to  that  of  Egypt  or  Persia  peculiarly  accessible 
to  tlie  Gospel,  and  yet  practically  without  any  mission- 
aries specially  set  apart  or  qualified  to  deal  with  them, 
and  apart  from  one  or  two  small  exceptions,  with  no 
literature  for  use  among  them,  we  shall  have  a  more  ade- 
quate conception  of  the  real  problem.  What  should  we 
think  of  Manchuria  or  Mongolia  without  any  mission- 
aries, or  of  no  interest  centering  around  the  closed  land 
of  Tibet?  Yet,  the  accessible  Moslem  population  of 
China  is  certainly  two  or  three  times  that  of  Mongolia. 
.  .  .  Within  China  there  is  a  special  people,  equal  in 
number  to  the  population  of  any  of  China's  dependencies, 
for  whom  practically  nothing  is  being  done  and  whose 
presence  hitherto  has  been  almost?  ignored/'^ 

The  survey  of  all  these  unoccupied  fields  and  unreached 
millions,  of  classes  and  masses  still  out-of-touch  alto- 
gether with  the  life-giving  Christ,  must  surely  move  us 
to  prayer  and  through  prayer  will  move  us  to  them. 

"O  grant  us  love  like  Thine. 
That  hears  the  cry  of  sorrow 
From  heathendom  ascending  to  the  throne  of  God; 
That  spurns  the  call  of  ease  and  home 
While  Christ's  lost  sheep  in  darkness  roam ! 

"O  grant  us  hearts  like  Thine, 
Wide,  tender,  faithful,  childlike, 
That  seek  no  more  their  own,  but  live  to  do  Thy  will! 
The  hearts  that  seek  Thy  Kingdom  first. 
Nor  linger  while  the  peoples  thirst 

"O  grant  us  minds  like  Thine, 
That  compassed  all  the  nations, 
That  swept  o'er  land  and  sea  and  loved  the  least  of  all ; 
Great  things  attempting  for  the  Lord, 
Expecting  mighty  things  from  God." 

*M.  Broomhall,  "Islam  in  China,"  216,  217. 


THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 


©1,045,230 


87  7J8e 


Mainpuri. 
(1)829,357, 


Saharanpur     Dehra. 


MUTTRA. 

©763,099 


ACRA. 

©1,060,528 


Etah. 
®863,948 


Etawam, 


J'hansi. 
®  616,759. 


Hamirpur. 
©456,542 


Mirzapur 
®I,082,43CJ®882 


@  178,195. 


Meerut 
®I,540,I75. 


Alicarh. 
©1,200,822. 


^SITAPUR."' 

®i,l75,473, 


Allahaba 
©1.489.358 


Benares. 
084J 


Almorah 
©465,893. 


Naini  Tal 
®3lt237. 


MURAOABACX 

©1,191,993 


Farrukhabad. 
©925,812 


BiJNOR. 

(J)7Jp,S5[. 


1!UCKN0W. 

793,241. 


CarhwAU 
(T)  429,900  V 


5:j:5.2}2     '^-~- 


SUOAON. 

.02^,753. 


Bareilly. 
©1.090,117. 


©4.7b;33g^ 


Shahjehanpur 
@92N535. 


},052,634.; 


Unao.        ,Gonda.'^ 
976,633.  jCD^glJggg 


Faizabao. 
©1,225,374. 


|646.i^^^ 


Ballia..  IGorakkpur 
X  9^87^766^,1®  2.957,074 


Ghazipur. '^' 
913,8)8. 


§; — ■ —  E. 

THE   DARK  DISTRICTS   IN   THE   UNITED   PROVINCES, 
Seventeen  are  without  a  Missionary^ 

Note. — Each  square  represents  one  of  the  administrative  dis- 
tricts of  the  United  Provinces,  with  an  average  population  of  a 
million  people. 

The  numbers  enclosed  in  a  circle  represent  the  number  of  for- 
eign ordained  missionaries  resident  in  the  district.  The  other 
figures  give  the  population  of  the  district,  according  to  the  Census 
of  1901. 

The  districts  lightly  tinted  have  only  one  resident  ordained  mis- 
sionary ;  those  with  a  darker  shade  have  no  resident  ordained  mis- 
sionary. 

The  thick  black  lines  enclose  the  areas  worked  by  the  Church 
Missionary  Society,  or  recognized  as  coming  within  its  sphere  of 
influence. 
*  Reprinted  from  the  Church  Missionary  Intelligencer,  August,  i90(J, 


WHY  STILL  UNOCCUPIED 


57 


''High  walls,  closed  doors,  and  jealous  foeman's  hate, 
Have  ages  long  held  Christless  lands  enchained, 
Whilst  Ignorance  and  Prejudice  remained. 

Twin  sentinels,  to  further  guard  the  gate, 

Determined  force  of  ill  doth  concentrate 
At  every  point  where  Light  hath  vantage  gained. 
Where  Truth,  at  spear-point,  hath  a  hold  maintained. 

And  pricked  foul  Sin  to  show  its  real  estate. 

"Meanwhile,  how  slowly  move  the  hosts  of  God 

To  claim  the  crown  He  hath  already  won! 
Their  feet,  how  slack  with  'preparation  shod,* 

To  forward  plant  the  Gospel  of  His  Son  I 
'Regions  beyond!*     Will  Christ's  Church  ever  dare 
In  selfish  ease  to  read,  'Beyond  His  care*?** 

— Anoa. 

"Our  train  of  camels  drew  slowly  by  them;  but  when  the 
smooth  Mecca  merchant  heard  that  the  stranger  riding  with  the 
camel-men  was  a  Nasrany  [Christian],  he  cried,  'Akhs!  A 
Nasrany  in  these  parts!'  and  with  the  horrid  inurbanity  of  their 
jealous  religion  he  added,  'Allah  curse  his  father!'  and  stared  on 
me  with  a  face  worthy  of  the  Koran." 

— C.  M.  Doughty  (Arabia  Deserta). 

"Shall  I  stretch  my  right  hand  to  the  Indus  that  England  may 

fill  it  with  gold? 
Shall  my  left  beckon  aid  from  the  Ozus?  the  Russian  blows  hot 

and  blows  cold; 
The  Afghan  is  but  grist  in  their  mill,  and  the  waters  are  moving 

it  fast. 
Let  the  stone  be  the  upper  or  nether,  it  grinds  him  to  powder 

at  last.** 

—Sir  Alfred  Lyall. 


58 


Chapter  III 
WHY  STILL  UNOCCUPIED 

It  surely  cannot  be  without  reason  that  so  large  a  por- 
tion of  the  world  is  still  unevangelized,  and  that  so  many 
areas  and  sections  adjoining  mission  fields  where  the 
triumphs  of  the  Gospel  have  proved  its  power,  are  still 
unreached. 

It  is  undoubtedly  true  on  the  one  hand  that  the  greatest 
hindrance  to  the  occupation  of  the  whole  world  for  Christ 
has  been  within  the  Church  itself.  Indifference  to  the 
cause  of  missions  and  lack  of  a  world-wide  vision  have 
delayed  the  accomplishment  of  the  task  for  centuries. 
The  neglect,  both  of  the  great  integral  areas  and  of  scat- 
tered smaller  sections  of  the  non-Christian  world,  is  di- 
rectly traceable  to  a  lack  of  adequate  and  comprehensive 
vision  of  the  real  missionary  goal.^  The  history  of  mis- 
sions in  China  and  in  Central  Africa  proves  that  with 
faith  and  leadership,  it  was  possible  to  advance  into  un- 
occupied territory  where  the  barriers  and  difficulties 
seemed  insurmountable.  We  must  not  justify  past  neglect 
nor  present  apathy. 

Lack  of  men  and  means  to  carry  on  the  work  already 
begun  is  the  great  reason  for  the  present  neglect  of  the 
largest  populations  lying  within  the  sphere  of  missionary 

*J.  R.  Mott,  "The  Evangelization  of  the  World  in  This  Generation,"  49. 

59 


60  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

occupation  or  on  its  immediate  borders.^  This  is  espe- 
cially true  of  those  areas  and  populations  described  in 
the  second  part  of  Chapter  11.  This  lack  of  workers  and 
of  money  is  a  reproach  to  the  church. 

Other  fields,  however,  are  wholly  unoccupied  because 
the  external  hindrances  and  difficulties  seem  even 
at  present  a  real  barrier  to  the  entrance  of  the  Gospel. 
Some  of  them  are  serious  and  appear  almost  insurmount- 
able, while  others  are  not  greater  than  the  difficulties  and 
obstacles  already  encountered  and  overcome  in  fields  at 
present  dotted  with  mission  stations.  Yet  it  is  only 
natural  that  the  remaining  difficulties  should  be  great. 
The  march  of  missionary  progress  throughout  the  past 
century  of  Protestant  missions  has,  with  some  exceptions, 
been  along  the  line  of  least  resistance.  When  the  whole 
non-Christian  world  was  awaiting  pioneer  eflfort,  the 
Church  sometimes  postponed  the  harder  tasks  and  passed 
by  doors  barred  to  enter  lands  that  were  beckoning. 

The  entrance  into  the  fields  and  sections  of  the  world 
still  unoccupied,  therefore,  by  Christian  missions  will  not 
prove  an  easy  task. 

The  physical  difficulties,  because  of  climate,  the 
dangers  and  hardships  of  pioneer  travel,  the  bar- 
riers of  race  hatred  and  religious  prejudice,  and  the 
determined  political  opposition  of  hostile  governments, 
are  not  yet  things  of  the  past  and  cannot  be  ignored  or 
minimized  in  a  thorough  consideration  of  this  part  of  the 
missionary  problem.  They  must  be  reckoned  with.  We 
gain  nothing  by  deceiving  ourselves  as  to  the  character, 
number  and  the  greatness  of  these  difficulties.  The  task 
remaining  is  one  that  calls  for  large  powers  and  demands 

^Report  of  World  Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgh,  1910,  Vol.  I. 


WHY  STILL  UNOCCUPIED  6l 

careful  investigation  before  we  attempt  it  lest  failure  fol- 
low our  efforts. 

Yet,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  well  for  us  to  re- 
member, as  John  R.  Mott  remarks,  "difficulties  are 
not  without  their  advantages.  They  are  not  to  unnerve 
us.  They  are  not  to  be  regarded  simply  as  subjects  for 
discussion  nor  as  grounds  for  scepticism  and  pessimism. 
They  are  not  to  cause  inaction,  but  rather  to  intensify 
activity.  They  were  made  to  be  overcome.  They  are 
to  call  forth  the  best  that  is  in  Christians.  Above  all, 
they  are  to  create  profound  distrust  in  human  plans 
and  energy  and  to  drive  us  to  God."^ 

The  chief  reason  why  the  unoccupied  fields  are  still 
without  the  Gospel,  indeed,  the  primary  one,  namely,  lack 
of  faith  and  enterprise  in  the  Church,  has  been  treated 
at  length  by  Mr.  Mott  in  his  "Evangelization  of  the 
World  in  this  Generation"  and  more  recently  in  his  "De- 
cisive Hour  of  Christian  Missions."  We  pass  to  the  sec- 
ondary reasons.    These  are  physical,  political  or  religious. 

First,  there  are  physical  obstacles  due  to  the  fact  that 
there  are  still  lands  unexplored,  and  climates  deadly,  and 
hardships  of  travel  or  conditions  and  environment  that  en- 
danger life,  or  call  for  the  highest  type  of  self-denial. 

David  Livingstone's  famous  saying  is  still  true,  "The 
end  of  the  geographical  feat  is  the  beginning  of  the 
missionary  enterprise."  Some  imagine  that  the  day  of 
geographical  discovery  is  already  drawing  to  its  close  and 
that  no  part  of  the  globe,  except  the  polar  regions,  re- 
mains where  exploration  is  needed.  The  fact,  however,  is 
that  both  in  Asia  and  in  Africa,  there  are  still  large 
regions  not  only  untouched  by  missionary  effort  but  that 

•J.  R.  Mott,  "The  Evangelization  of  the  World  in  This  Generation,"  50. 


62  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

have  never  been  explored  or  mapped  by  the  pioneer 
traveler. 

"It  is  true  that  Africa  is  no  longer  the  Dark  Continent," 
says  Hogarth,  "but  it  is  guarding  jealously  at  this  mo- 
ment some  very  dark  spots.  Even  in  British  territory, 
how  much  is  known  of  the  inner  Shilluk  districts  of 
the  Sudan,  or  the  region  between  the  upper  waters  of 
the  Blue  Nile  and  the  limits  of  Uganda?  and  who  has 
followed  Rohlfs  down  the  line  of  Senussi  oases  from 
Tripoli  or  the  Cyrenaica  towards  Wadai?"^ 

The  greater  part  of  the  unevangelized  fields  in  Africa 
is  accessible  only  by  long  and  weary  marches  through 
bush  and  forest  and  tropical,  luxuriant  vegetation  on 
the  one  hand,  or  through  scrub  land  on  the  other. 
Broadly  speaking,  in  Africa  modern  missions  have 
worked  from  the  seaboard  and  along  the  rivers  inland, 
and  while  the  Moslem  advance  in  Africa  is  still  along 
the  old  overland  routes,^  missionary  progress  has  followed 
too'  much  the  water-ways  and  the  railroads  and  left 
large  sections  untouched  and  untried. 

Geographers  have  shown,  by  graphic  maps,  how  not 
only  around  the  polar  regions,  but  in  the  heart  of  Asia 
and  Africa,  as  well  as  in  South  America,  there  still  re- 
main somewhat  extensive  areas  concerning  which  we  are 
absolutely  ignorant.^  The  largest  of  these  areas  are  in 
Asia. 

^"Problems  in  Exploration,"  Geographical  Jourfial,  December,  1908,  549. 
Cf.  C.  H,  Stigand,  "To  Abyssinia  Through  an  Unknown  Land,"  Preface 
and  page  17. 

2"Xovv  that  the  new  routes  down  to  the  west  coast  and  so  to  Europe  have 
been  opened,  it  is  not  likely  that  the  old  trans-Saharan  trade  will  ever 
regain  its  former  proportions,  but  the  spiritual  influence  that  has  given  the 
Hausa  his  religion,  his  art  and  culture  will  still  continue  to  penetrate  from 
the  north."     Hanns  Vischer,  "Across  the  Sahara,"  3. 

'H.  R.  Mill,  "International  Geography,"  13;  also  map  in  Asien,  March* 
1902. 


WHY  STILL  UNOCCUPIED  63 

Not  to  speak  of  portions  of  Central  Borneo,  British 
and  Dutch  New  Guinea.^  or  the  Territory  of  Papua,- 
as  it  is  now  designated,  and  the  unexplored  portions  of 
Northern  Siberia,  important  geographical  problems  await 
solution  in  Western  and  Central  Asia.  The  largest  un- 
explored area  in  Asia  and  perhaps  in  the  world  is  in 
southeastern  Arabia. 

There  are  better  maps  of  the  moon  than  of  this  part 
of  the  world.  All  the  lunar  mountains,  plains,  and  craters 
are  mapped  and  named,  and  astronomers  are  quite  as 
familiar  with  Copernicus  and  Eratosthenes  (16,000  feet 
high)  as  geographers  are  with  Vesuvius  or  the  Matter- 
horn.'  But  from  certain  scientific  points  of  view  hardly 
anything  of  the  Arabian  peninsula  is  known.  Not  an 
hundredth  part  has  been  mathematically  surveyed,  and 
for  knowledge  of  the  interior  we  depend  almost  wholly 
on  the  testimony  of  less  than  a  score  of  travelers  who 
paid  a  big  price  to  penetrate  the  neglected  peninsula."* 
The  record  of  their  travels  is  a  testimony  to  the  great 
difficulties  that  must  be  met  in  occupying  this  region. 

'In  a  note  on  the  British  Expedition  to  Dutch  New  Guinea,  Geographical 
Journal,  July,  1910,  105,  we  read  that  the  explorers  "made  an  unsuccessful 
attempt  to  reach  a  clearing  on  one  of  the  mountains,  but  from  a  spot  1,700 
feet  above  the  sea  obtained  a  view  showing  the  jungle  to  extend  in  one 
unbroken  mass  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach.  Every  foot  of  the  way,  when 
off  the  river-bed,  has  to  be  cut  through  an  endless  mass  of  tangled  trees 
and  creepers.  During  the  ascent,  representatives  of  a  pygmy  tribe,  having 
an  average  heic:ht  of  only  4  feet  3  inches,  were  met  with.  This  is  of  con- 
siderable interest,  as  it  adds  one  more  to  the  indications  which  have  lately 
been  accumulating  of  the  probable  existence  (formerly  denied)  of  the 
Negrito  race  in  New  Guinea.  Practically  no  help  in  the  way  of  transport 
could  be  got  from  the  natives,  and  no  cultivation  was  found,  the  people 
living  entirely  upon  wild  produce,  supplemented  by  a  few  fish." 

*Col.  Kenneth  Mackay,  "Across  Papua,"  Preface.  Also  "Recent  Explora- 
tion in  British  New  Guinea,"  Geographical  Journal,   1909,  .266-274. 

*D.   P.  Todd,   "New  Astronomy,"  249. 

*D.  G.  Hogarth,  "The  Penetration  of  Arabia."  passim,  and  bibliography 
on  Arabia  in  the  Appendix.     Also  A.   Ralli,  "Christians  at  Mecca." 


64  THE   UNOCCUPIED    MISSION    FIELDS 

Niebuhr  alone,  of  all  his  party,  returned  to  tell  of  Yemen; 
the  rest  died  of  fever  and  exposure.  Huber  was  mur- 
dered by  Bedouins  and  his  journal  published  after  his 
death.  Seetzen  was  murdered  near  Taiz  and  Manzoni 
was  shot  with  his  own  rifle  by  a  treacherous  companion. 
Bent  died  from  the  effects  of  the  Hadramaut  climate, 
and  Von  Wrede,  after  suffering  everything  to  reach  the 
Ahkaf,  returned  to  Europe  to  be  scoffed  at  and  his 
strange  story  labeled  a  romance !  Only  years  after  his 
tragic  death  was  it  corroborated.  And  Doughty,  chief 
among  Arabian  explorers,  was  turned  out  of  Nejd  sick 
and  penniless  to  trudge  on  foot  with  a  caravan  hundreds 
of  miles  to  be  betrayed  near  Mecca,  escaping  by  the  skin 
of  his  teeth. 

Almost  all  of  the  southern  half  of  Arabia  is,  according 
to  native  report,  occupied  by  a  vast  wilderness  generally 
called  Roba'-el-Khali — the  empty  abode.^  No  European 
has  ever  entered  this  immense  tract,  which  embraces 
some  600,000  square  miles,  although  three  travelers, 
Wellsted  in  1836,  von  Wrede  in  1843,  and  Joseph  Halevy 
in  1870,  with  intrepid  boldness  gazed  on  its  uttermost 
fringes  from  the  west,  south  and  east  respectively.  Some 
Arabian  maps  show  caravan  tracks  running  through  the 
heart  of  this  desert  from  Hadramaut  to  Muscat  and 
Riadh.  For  the  rest,  we  have  only  vague  reports  at  second 
hand  in  regard  to  this  whole  mysterious  region.  Burton 
and  Doughty  expressed  the  opinion  that  an  explorer 
might  perhaps  cross  this  waterless  territory  in  early 
spring  on  she-camels  giving  full  milk,  but  it  would  take 
a  bold  man  to  venture  out  for  the  passage  of  850  miles 
west  to  east,  or  650  miles  north  to  south,  through  this 
zone  of  the  world's  greatest  heat,  to  discover  the  un- 

»S.  M.  Zwemer,  "Arabia,  the  Cradle  of  Islam,"  143. 


THK   LATK   (IRANI)   SllKRKKI-   Ol-    MKCC  A 


Auner-Rafik,  a  direct  descendant  of    Molianinit-d.  and   the   guardian   of  the 
Sacred  L"it>  64 


WHY  STILL  UNOCCUPIED  65 

known  in  Arabia.  Such  an  enterprise,  although  of  value 
to  geography,  would  count  for  little  or  nothing  in  the 
work  of  evangelization,  and  yet  who  knows  whether  this 
region  may  not  have  ruins  of  former  civilization,  or 
remnants  of  half-pagan  tribes? 

There  are,  however,  other  districts  in  Arabia  which 
are  not  desert,  but  inhabited  by  large  tribes,  and  in  some 
cases  containing  groups  of  villages  and  smaller  cities 
which  have  never  been  seen  by  Western  eyes.  The  biggest 
geographical  feat  left  for  a  traveler  to  perform  in  all 
Asia  is  to  get  across  the  Yemen,  on  to  Nejran  and  pass 
from  thence  along  the  Wady  Dawasir  to  Aflaj  and  Nejd.^ 
We  know  that  this  journey  is  followed  by  Arab  caravans, 
and  I  met  many  of  the  Arabs  from  that  district  on  my 
first  and  second  visit  to  Sana  in  Yemen.  There  are 
plenty  of  wells  and  the  journey  would  lead  through  a 
long  palm  track  of  over  100  miles  march  in  its  early 
stages. 

Nejd,  in  the  heart  of  Arabia,  has  never  been  visited 
by  a  missionary.  In  that  region  the  experiences  of 
Doughty,  and  of  Nolde,  in  1893,  prove  that  it  may  re- 
quire moral  and  physical  courage  of  no  common  order 
to  explore  the  country,  but,  nevertheless.  Doughty  never 
abjured  his  Christianity  and  a  medical  missionary  might 
well  be  able  to  penetrate  into  every  part  of  this  great 
unknown  center  of  Arabia,  if  he  won  the  protection  of 
the  various  tribes  through  his  medical  and  surgical 
skill.2 

^Geographical  Journal,  December,  1908,  551.  D.  G.  Hogarth,  "Penetration 
of  Arabia,"  324-337. 

"Professor  Alois  Musil  made  explorations  in  North  Arabia  in  1908-09, 
removing  some  of  the  blank  spaces  from  the  map.*  between  Bagdad  and 
Damascus,  but  experienced  the  greatest  difficulties.  "These  trips,  it  should 
be  noted,  were  all  carried  out  under  incessant  alarm  from  robber  bands  or 
hostile    tribes.      On    his    Mcond    excursion,    which    was    directed    eastward. 


66  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

There  are  other  parts  of  Western  Asia  awaiting  ex- 
ploration, yet  not  so  large  in  area  as  those  in  Arabia. 
Two  districts  in  Kurdistan  await  the  pioneer  traveler 
bold  and  brave  enough  to  unlock  their  secrets.  One  is 
in  the  southern  part  of  the  wild  mountain  regions  of 
Hakkiari,  and  the  other  in  the  so-called  Dersim  District, 
both  inhabited  either  by  pagan  tribes  or  by  obscure  Mos- 
lem sects,  all  wild  mountaineers.^ 

Nor  is  the  work  of  pioneer  exploration  completed  in 
Central  Asia.^  The  two  chief  regions  remaining  are  in 
Afghanistan  and  Tibet.  Although  the  main  features  of 
Afghanistan  are  known  and  mapped,  parts  of  the  Hel- 
mund  river  valley  and  the  northeast  corner  of  Afghanis- 
tan, Badakhshan  and  Kafiristan,  are  almost  entirely  un- 
known. On  the  maps  of  Tibet,  there  are  still  blank 
spaces,  and  southeastern  Tibet  is  yet  largely  unexplored; 

Musil  was  stabbed  in  the  back  by  a  lance  and  in  the  breast  by  a  knife, 
while  with  his  attendants  he  was  stripped  of  everything  down  to  his  shirt. 
It  was  only  his  familiarity  with  languages  and  manners,  and  the  friendly 
relations  he  had  established  on  former  journeys,  that  got  him  out  of 
this  and  similar  awkward  predicaments.  He  suffered  also  at  the  hands  of 
thievish  guides,  whilst  even  worse  difficulties  were  caused  by  the  climate 
and  by  the  badness  of  the  drinking  water,  which  more  than  once  laid  him 
on  a  bed  of  sickness.  He  passed  nights  in  the  open  where  the  temperature 
varied  from  8°  s'  to  23°  Fahr.  and  these  would  be  followed  by  days  with  an 
air-temperature  of  115°  Fahr.  Early  on  December  10,  as  told  by  him  in  a 
preliminary  report  to  the  Vienna  Academy  of  Sciences,  he  had  difficulty  in 
adjusting  his  headcloth  and  blanket,  so  hard  were  they  frozen,  v^hile  his 
men  hardly  dared  take  hold  of  the  water-bottles  for  fear  of  their  breaking. 
After  sunrise  they  warmed  them  by  the  fire,  for  to  have  kindled  a  fire 
earlier  might  have  exposed  the  party  to  attack.  On  the  third  excursion, 
which,  starting  in  the  southwest  part  of  the  region  under  examination, 
proceeded  southward,  it  was  with  great  difficulty  that  he  found  a  guide. 
Nobody  was  willing  to  accompany  him  in  these  'death  paths,'  which,  fol- 
lowing on  a  ride  through  the  desolate  black  desert  of  el-Bseita,  led  into 
the  defiles  of  the  westerly  arm  of  the  sandy  desert  of  Nefud"  (^Geographical 
Journal,  May,   1910,  581). 

^Geographical  Journal,  December,  1908,  557. 

'B.  de  Lacoste,  "Around  Afghanistan,"  77.  Sven  Hedin,  "Through 
Asia,"  Vol.  I,  3,  5. 


WHY  STILL  UNOCCUPIED  Oj 

while  between  the  Hmits  of  Tibetan  territory  and  the 
boundary  of  Assam,  there  are  also  regions  unvisited, 
not  to  speak  of  the  almost  uninhabited  Persian  desert 
of  the  Lut  and  large  tracts  in  the  desert  of  Takhla 
Makan.^ 

There  are  lands,  also,  which  although  long  since  ex- 
plored and  mapped  have,  because  of  inaccessibility  or 
climatic  difficulties,  not  yet  been  entered  by  missionaries. 
Regions  of  intense  heat  and  bitter  cold,  or  where  the 
dangers  of  tropical  disease  on  the  one  hand,  or  those 
of  extreme  elevation  on  the  other,  have  proved  unat- 
tractive. Mongolia  and  parts  of  Central  Asia  are  an 
example  of  such  a  problem.-  Perched  on  the  roof  of 
the  world,  where  the  valleys  are  as  high  as  Mont  Blanc, 
the  villages  on  the  borders  of  Tibet  are  almost  buried 
beneath  deep  snow  during  half  of  the  year,  and  com- 
munications even  in  summer  time  are  only  through  the 
high  Himalayan  passes.^  Perceval  Landon  describes 
the  hardships  which  no  human  activity  can  ever  hope 
to  remove  from  the  highway  leading  to  Lhasa,  the  ex- 
perience of  "frozen  mist  and  stinging  splinters  of  ice 
blown  by  the  wind  across  the  terrible  pass,  the  dangers 
of  mountain  sickness  when  the  lungs  are  inadequate  for 
the  task  imposed  upon  them,  and  the  heart  beats  with 
increasing  strokes  till  it  shakes  the  walls  of  the  body."* 

^Geographical  Journal,  April,   1910,  395-399- 

'M.  Broomhall,  "The  Chinese  Empire,"  358.  Geographical  Journal,  July, 
1910,  in  note  on  Major  de  Lacoste's  journey  across  Mongolia,   102. 

»The  hardships  of  life  in  Tibet  are  referred  to  by  Count  de  Lesdain, 
especially  the  plague  of  mosquitoes  and  gnats.  Even  at  a  height  of  14,000 
feet,  in  the  Naitchi  Valley,  they  were  beset  by  clouds  of  mosquitoes  and, 
in  spite  of  all  precautions,  it  was  impossible  to  enjoy  a  moment's  rest.  He 
»ays,  "While  taking  thft  usual  evening's  observations  my  hands  were 
simply  devoured  in  the  space  of  five  minutes."— "From  Peking  to  Sikkim," 
333.  238,  239. 

*P.  Landon,  "Opening  of  Tibet,"  53-76. 


68  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

"I  entered  Kyeland  by  the  Shingo  La,"  writes  J.  H. 
Bateson,  "a  pass  16,^22  feet  high,  over  a  long  glacier, 
and  left  it  by  the  Rotang,  which  is  always  dangerous  after 
noon  on  account  of  an  icy,  biting  wind  which  sweeps 
through  the  gorge  with  the  force  of  a  hurricane."^ 

The  effects  of  the  high  altitude  in  this  part  of  the  world 
make  breathing  hard,  and  are  often  the  cause  of  death.^ 
We  must  follow  Sven  Hedin,  Landor,  Stein,  Young- 
husband  and  other  explorers  in  their  journeys  to  learn 
something  of  the  difficulties  of  travel  and  climate  in  this 
part  of  the  world.  Stein  writes  of  his  exploration  in 
Central  Asia :  "We  suffered  a  great  deal  from  the  almost 
daily  gales  and  the  terrible  extremes  of  this  desert  cli- 
mate. Against  the  icy  blasts,  which  continued  well  into 
April,  our  stoutest  furs  were  poor  protection.  On  April 
I,  1907,  I  still  registered  a  minimum  temperature  of 
39  degrees  Fahr.  below  freezing  point,  but  before  the 
month  was  ended,  the  heat  and  glare  had  already  be- 
come very  trying  (on  April  20th,  the  thermometer  showed 
90  degrees  Fahr,  in  the  shade),  and  whenever  the  wind 
fell  perfect  clouds  of  mosquitoes  and  other  insects  would 
issue  from  the  salt  marshes  to  torment  men  and  beasts. 
For  weeks,  I  had  to  wear  a  motor-veil  day  and  night 
to  protect  myself."^  Such  hardships  are  not  met  only 
on  "the  roof  of  the  world"  but  in  many  other  unoccupied 
fields. 

The  difficulties  of  travel  in  Central  Papua  (where  there 

i"At  the  Threshold,"  Tibet  Prayer  Unim,  April  20,  1909. 

=Sven  Hedin,  "Through  Asia,"  Vol.  I,  112,  113,  123,  125,  144.  etc.  A.  H.  S. 
Landor,  "In  the  Forbidden  Land,"  Vol.  I,  146,  i47.  i5S,  160,  206,  208.  F. 
Landon,  "The  Opening  of  Tibet,"  passim. 

^Geographical  Journal,  September,  1909,  242.  Count  de  Lesdain,  "From 
Peking  to  Sikkim,"  273-279,  "At  noon  on  March  5th  the  thermometer  regis- 
tered 14°  Fahr.  in  the  shade,  while  the  black  bulb  insolation  thermometer 
showed  125.6'  Fahr.  in  the  sun."    Sven  Hedin,  "Through  Asia,"  VoL  I,  144. 


WHY  STILL  UNOCCUPIED  6g 

are  unexplored  sections  which  no  white  man's  eyes  have 
ever  seen)  are  also  great  and  have  doubtless  been  one 
reason  why  this  part  of  the  world  is  still  unoc- 
cupied. Col.  Kenneth  Mackay  tells  how  his  path  led 
"over  torrents  spanned  by  single  logs  and  swaying 
vine-bridges,  up  and  down  innumerable  and  practically 
pathless  hills  and  ravines,  culminating  in  crossing  the 
main  ridge  at  nearly  9,000  feet,  which  taught  us  a  lesson 
in  human  endurance  never  to  be  forgotten."  "Papua 
to-day,"  he  tells  us,  "is  where  Australia  was  one  hun- 
dred years  ago  with  the  additional  handicap  of  a  worse 
climate  and  a  more  difficult  seaboard."^ 

In  regard  to  the  frontiers  of  Baluchistan  (Seistan), 
Tate  says:  "Of  all  the  plagues  of  this  plague-ridden 
country  the  flies  are  the  least  endurable.  By  the  time 
we  had  ridden  a  distance  of  seven  miles  our  hands  and 
the  quarters  of  the  camels  were  streaked  with  blood  drawn 
by  their  stings.'"  We  are  told  the  natives  must  protect 
even  their  horses  against  this  pest  by  wrapping  their 
bodies  and  necks  in  swaddling  bands.  The  few  mission- 
aries at  Yarkand  and  Kashgar  also  find  the  extremes  of 
climate,  together  with  the  plague  of  mosquitoes  and  other 
insects  during  the  summer  months,  most  trying.^ 

Those  who  expect  to  occupy  these  lands  must  be  willing 
to  endure  hardship  as  good  soldiers  of  Christ,  and  need 
the  same  patience,  persistence,  energy  and  hopeful- 
ness which  characterized  explorers  like  Sven  Hedin, 
while  he  was  trying  to  fill  up  the  blank  spaces  on  the 
map  of  Central  Asia,  or  Livingstone  those  in  Central 
Africa.      The   terrors   of   the   desert — thirst,    loneliness, 

*K.  Mackay,  "Across  Papua,"  137,  177,  183. 

*G.    P.   Tate,   "The   Frontiers  of  Baluchistan,"    169,   170. 

•Sven  Hedin,  "Through  Asia,"  Vol.  II,  872. 


70  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

and  the  danger  of  being  lost  in  the  sands — are  all  stern 
realities.    The  desert  is  a  world  of  its  own.^ 

To  reach  the  heart  of  Arabia,  the  tribes  of  the  Sahara, 
and  the  sparse  populations  in  some  parts  of  Central 
Asia  and  Mongolia,  one  must  cross  these  great  seas  of 
sand  where  there  are  drifts  a  hundred  feet  deep,  where 
no  living  thing  breaks  the  silence,  and  where,  as  the 
Arabs  say,  there  is  nothing  but  God.  Who  can  describe 
the  horror  of  the  desert  of  Gobi? 

The  region  west  of  Afghanistan  has  been  called 
"Nature's  giant  dust-bin,  the  inferno  of  Seistan."  In 
portions  of  Baluchistan  the  temperatures  recorded  for 
eight  months  of  the  year  are  perhaps  some  of  the  highest 
registered  in  the  world.  "During  a  few  months,  iio° 
to  120^  in  the  shade  is  by  no  means  uncommon; 
117°  to  126°  being  noted  on  twenty  days  in  the  month 
of  May,  while  130°  has,  I  believe,  been  recorded.  'O 
God!'  says  a  native  proverb,  'when  Thou  didst  create 
Sibi  and  Dadar,  what  need  was  there  to  conceive  hell?' 
So  great  is  the  heat  that,  during  a  few  months  of  the 
year,  communication  in  Kachi  is  rendered  difficult  and 
sometimes  dangerous.     On  the  other  hand,  in  some  of 


*"If  the  desert  is  the  garden  of  Allah,  it  is  also  the  abode  of  devils  who 
resent  the  intrusion  of  man  and  annoy  him  with  sandstorms,  scorching 
south  winds,  show  him  mirages  of  lakes  and  cool  trees  when  he  is  almost 
driven  mad  by  the  heat,  frighten  his  camels  at  night  or  trick  him  into 
following  wrong  roads." 

"The  desert  has  left  an  impression  on  my  soul  which  nothing  will  ever 
efface.  I  entered  it  frivolously,  like  a  fool  who  rushes  in  where  angels  and, 
I  believe,  even  devils  fear  to  tread.  I  left  it  as  one  stunned,  crushed  by 
the  deadly  majesty  I  had  seen  too  closely." 

"The  desert  is  the  garden  of  Allah,  not  of  the  bountiful  God  who  is 
worshipped  with  harmonious  chants  of  love  in  the  soft  incense-laden  atmos- 
phere of  a  cathedral,  but  the  Jehovah  of  Israel,  a  consuming  fire,  on  Whom 
no  man  can  look  and  live."  Hanns  Vischer,  "Across  the  Sahara,"  73,  87, 
293-    Cf.  also  Sven  Hedm,  "Through  Asia,"  Vol.  I,  466-468. 


WHY  STILL  UNOCCUriLD  7I 

the  highest  valleys  during  the  winter  months,  the  ther- 
mometer will  occasionally  sink  below  zcro."^ 

In  his  latest  volume,  Captain  Stigand  describes  an  ad- 
venturous journey  he  took  through  the  unexplored  re- 
gions of  British  East  Africa  from  Gilgil,  a  point  on  the 
Uganda  River,  to  Southern  Abyssinia.  The  London 
Times,  in  speaking  of  it  says :  "Few  explorers,  however 
hardy,  will  care  to  follow  in  his  footsteps.  For  a  month 
he  seems  to  have  traversed  the  country  south  and  east  of 
Rudolf,  which  was  so  desolate  that  it  was  practically 
uninhabited.  It  was  a  wilderness  of  lava  and  stone,  and 
water  was  so  scarce  that  the  party  suffered  much  from 
thirst."^ 

Such  are  some  of  the  difficulties  of  climate  and  hard- 
ships in  travel  which  must  be  faced  yet  which  have  never 
deterred  pioneer  missionaries  in  the  past,  and  should  not 
deter  them  now  from  occupying  difficult  fields.  Real 
explorers  are  not  afraid  of  the  unknown  or  dangerous. 
Although  travel  in  Central  Asia  is  far  from  easy,  the 
Comtcsse  de  Lesdain  made  the  long  journey  through 
Central  Asia  from  Peking  to  Sikkim  as  her  wedding 
journey!  She  was  then  only  nineteen  years  old,  and 
suffered  from  typhoid  fever  in  the  desert  of  Gobi  where 
the  temperature  was  at  times  ^y""  below  zero.  Her 
plucky  example  was  encouragement  to  the  natives  of  the 
caravan.  She  often  shared  the  night  watch  and  was  full 
of  energy  at  the  end  of  the  long  journey.^  Mission- 
aries, men  and  women,  have  been  equally  brave. 

*A.  D.  Dixey,  "Baluchistan,  the  Country  and  Its  People,"  in  Church 
Missionary  Rcz'iew,  November,  1908.  B.  de  Lacoste,  "Around  Afghanistan," 
78,  88.  164- 

'Review  of  "To  Abyssinia  Through  an  Unknown  Land,"  London  Tinus, 
April  15,  1910. 

'Count  de   Lesdain,  "From  Peking  to  Sikkim,"    175,  255,  etc. 


p^  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

When  Bishop  Bompas  describes  his  frequent  journeys 
taken  among  the  Eskimos,  the  account  itself  bears  wit- 
ness to  the  possibiHty  of  a  cheerful  spirit  and  a  keen 
sense  of  humor  in  the  midst  of  hardships,  discomforts 
and  dangers;  here  is  the  perseverance  of  the  saints. 

"Harness  yourself  to  a  wheelbarrow  or  a  garden  rol- 
ler," he  wrote  "and  then,  having  blindfolded  yourself, 
you  will  be  able  to  fancy  me  arriving,  snow-blind  and 
hauling  my  sledge,  at  the  Eskimo  camp,  which  is  a  white 
beehive  about  six  feet  across,  with  the  way  a  little  larger 
than  that  for  the  bees.  .  .  As  to  one's  costume,  you 
cannot  manage  that,  except  that  a  blanket  is  always  a 
good  cloak  for  us;  but  take  a  large  butcher's  knife  in 
your  hand,  and  that  of  itself  will  make  you  an  Eskimo 
without  further  additions.  If  you  will  swallow  a  chimney- 
ful  of  smoke,  or  take  a  few  whiffs  of  the  fumes  of 
charcoal,  you  will  know  something  of  the  Eskimo  mode 
of  intoxicating  themselves  with  tobacco,  and  a  tanyard 
will  give  you  some  idea  of  the  sweetness  of  their  camps. 
Fat,  raw  bacon,  you  will  find,  tastes  much  like  whale 
blubber,  and  lamp  oil,  sweetened  somewhat,  might  pass 
for  seal  fat.  Rats  you  will  doubtless  find  equally  good 
to  eat  at  home  as  here,  though  without  the  musk  flavor ; 
but  you  must  get  some  raw  fish,  a  little  rotten,  to  enjoy 
a  good  Eskimo  dinner."^  Or  to  take  another  illustration. 
In  telling  how  he,  the  first  white  man,  crossed  Guadal- 
canar  of  the  Solomon  Island  group,  the  missionary. 
Dr.  Northcote  Deck,  writes : 

"Then  began  the  first  of  the  many  ascents  we  were 
to  make  on  hands  and  knees,  clinging  to  roots,  to  creepers, 
to  stones,  as  we  scaled  the  mountain's  side  and  counted 
the  cost  of  crossing  the  island. 

^Church  Missionary  Review,  August,  1908,  in  a  review  of  his  biography. 


WHY  STILL  UNOCCUPIED  73 

"One  looks  at  the  chart  and  measures  the  distance, 
about  sixty  miles  the  way  we  went,  and  wonders  at 
the  toil  and  energy  we  expended,  the  next  five 
days,  and  at  the  hardness  of  the  way. 

"For  the  miles  are  costly,  and  you  cannot  count  the 
distance  as  the  crow  flies ;  for  we  did  not  fly,  but  very 
painfully  crawled  by  tortuous  tracks  and  rushing  rivers 
and  mountain  ridges  across  the  backbone  of  the  island. 

"When  you  count  the  distance  you  must  add  in  the 
drenching  rain  storms,  the  island  ague,  the  tropic  languor 
of  the  air.  You  must  wade  through  swamps  that  are 
as  the  Slough  of  Despond.  You  must  climb  to  peaks 
where  eagles  might  build.  You  must  turn  and  re-turn 
as  the  track  climbs  to  furtive  zig-zags  up  a  hill,  to  fight 
your  way  with  axe  and  cane-knife  yard  by  yard  through 
vines  and  creepers,  thorns  and  prickly  palms.  You  must 
herd  at  night  with  pigs  and  savages  in  leaking  humpies, 
and  when  you  add  the  sum  of  all,  you  find  the  road 
stretches  out  interminably  and  seems  never-ending,  a 
human  tread-mill. 

"And  yet  the  interest  is  intense,  and  well  repays  the 
toil  of  thus  reaching  into  the  unknown.  For  who  knows 
what  may  lie  behind  the  coastal  range ;  what  peoples, 
what  customs,  what  killing,  what  lakes  and  rivers,  what 
mountain  peaks  ?  Who  knows,  too,  who  will  emerge  on 
the  northern  coast,  and  when?"^ 

The  unoccupied  fields  are  waiting  for  men  with  this 
spirit. 

It  is  only  fair  to  add  that  the  difficulties  of  climate 
and  the  risks  to  health,  as  well  as  many  of  the  incon- 
veniences of  travel,  are  gradually  disappearing  with  the 

*"The  First  Crossing  of  Guadalcanar,"  Letter  of  the  South  Sea  Evangelxca, 
Mission,   Sydney,   May,    1910. 


74  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

march  of  civilization,  the  building  of  railways  and  through 
medical  discovery.  Health  in  the  tropics  has  become 
a  different  problem.  The  old  high  death-rate  has  been 
greatly  reduced  by  improved  sanitation  and  modern 
knowledge  of  tropical  diseases.  Algeria  was  once  re- 
garded as  intensely  unhealthy ;  it  is  now  a  popular  Euro- 
pean health  resort.  The  same  is  true  of  other  parts  of 
the  world. ^  Samarai,  in  Papua,  was  once  considered  a 
death-trap,  but  by  filling  in  the  swamps  malaria  has  be- 
come a  thing  of  the  past.  ''Eight  years  ago,  it  was  a 
white  man's  grave.  To-day,  as  tropical  islands  go,  it  is 
a  sanitarium."^  In  the  Egyptian  Sudan,  malaria  was 
once  rife,  but  has  largely  disappeared  as  the  result  of 
sanitary  regulations  and  by  destroying  the  breeding 
places  of  mosquitoes.^  The  physical  barriers  are  no 
longer  what  they  were  in  the  unoccupied  fields. 

More  baffling  at  times  than  the  difficulties  of  climate 

*"Is  there  any  physical  reason  why  white  men  should  not  work  in  the 
tropics?  Is  it  the  heat?  Attendants  in  Turkish  baths,  stokers  in  steamers, 
glass-blowers  and  furnace  men  in  metallurgical  works  withstand  higher 
temperatures  than  are  encountered  in  any  tropical  country.  But  it  may  be 
said  that  these  men  are  not  engaged  in  the  open  air,  exposed  to  the  fatal 
fury  of  the  sun.  British  troops,  however,  have  to  march  in  India,  and  it 
is  found  that  they  are  healthier  then  than  when  cooped  up  in  barracks. 
British  tea-planters  in  India  kave  been  instanced  as  a  healthy  race,  although 
their  duties  require  them  to  be  out  in  the  hottest  time  of  the  day,  in  the 
hottest  season  of  the  year." — Paper  in  the  Geographical  Journal,  Febru- 
ary, 1909,  by  Professor  J.  W.  Gregory,  F.R.S.,  on  "The  Economic 
Geography  and  Development  of  Australia."  See  also  on  this  subject, 
"Mosquito  or  Man?"  by  Sir  Rubert  Boyce  (London:  Murray,  1909).  The 
sub-title  of  this  work,  "The  Conquest  of  the  Tropical  World,"  is  amply 
justified  by  the  paramount  importance  of  the  physiological  discoveries  and 
problems  here  dealt  with.  The  volume  furnishes  a  survey  of  the  wonderful 
work  done  since  the  discovery  of  the  association  between  the  mosquito  and 
the  propagation  of  malaria,  yellow  fever  and  other  diseases,  and  provides 
a  guide  to  the  salutary  measures  which  have  been  and  may  be  adopted  in 
various  localities. 

^K.  Mackay,  "Across  Papua,"  47. 

»H.  L.  Tangye,  "In  the  Torrid  Sudan,"  175. 


WHY  STILL  UNOCCUPIED 


75 


or  travel  has  been  the  pohtical  opposition  or  the  jealousy 
of  governments.  \'ast  territories  have  been  closed  in  the 
past  to  the  missionary  enterprise  on  purely  political 
grounds.  The  doors  have  been  closed  against  the  mis- 
sionary not  only  by  non-Christian  governments,  but  alas! 
also  at  times  by  those  nominally  Christian.  Certain  native 
states  in  India,  for  example,  cither  have  no  resident  mis- 
sionary or  are  wholly  untouched  by  mission-effort  because 
of  political  prohibition ;  for  instance,  the  tributary  states 
of  Sirguja,  Jaspur,  Udaipur,  Changbhakar,  and  the  in- 
dependent state  of  Tippcrah.^  The  chief  reason  why  mis- 
sionaries do  not  enter  Nepal  and  Bhutan  is  because  they 
are  political  "buffer  states,"  although  under  British  pro- 
tection, and  entrance  is  forbidden. 

Political  hindrance  has  been  hitherto  also  a  large  factor 
in  the  almost  total  absence  of  Protestant  missions  in 
French  colonial  possessions  in  southeastern  Asia  and  west 
and  central  Africa.  Elsewhere  the  same  government 
has  limited  or  even  threatened  to  wipe  out  missionary 
work  which  had  begun,  as  in  Madagascar. ^  The  French 
administration,  especially  in  northwest  Africa,  seems 
favorable  to  rationalism,  atheism  and  secularism,  but  an- 
tagonistic to  anything  in  the  form  of  Christian  propa- 
gandism.  Even  for  medical  w^ork  within  the  French  pro- 
tectorates it  is  necessary  to  have  a  French  diploma,''  while 
we  are  told  that  throughout  French  and  Portuguese  ter- 
ritory in  Africa  there  is  practically  a  virgin  field   for 

^Report  of  World  Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgh,  igio.  Vols.  I  and 
VII:  "Cases  have  been  cited  by  some  of  our  correspondents  in  which 
British  political  officers  have  forbidden  missionaries  to  enter  Native  States, 
a  proceeding  which  could  only  be  justified  by  a  very  extraordinary  state 
of  affairs.  The  British  Government  compels  China  to  admit  foreigners. 
How  can  it  debar  its  subjects  from  entering  a  vassal  State?" 

'Ibid,  Vol.  I,  African  section;  and  Vol.  VII,  passim. 

•Ibid,  Vol.  I,  African  section;  and  Vol.  VII,  passim. 


76  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

evangelical  missions  if  only  the  governments  would  per- 
mit the  establishment  of  such  missions  within  their  ter- 
ritories.^ 

The  records  of  missionary  travelers  from  Krapf  and 
Livingstone  down  to  our  own  times  prove  that  except 
for  the  prohibitions  of  Christian  governments  there  is 
practically  no  part  of  pagan  Africa  closed  to  the  mis- 
sionary by  the  natives  themselves. 

Yet  to-day  we  must  face  the  fact  that  it  is  the  tendency 
of  nearly  all  the  local  representatives  of  governments 
professedly  Christian,  including  the  British  Government, 
to  facilitate  and  encourage  the  spread  of  the  Moham- 
medan religion  and  to  restrict,  and  in  some  cases  pre- 
vent the  propagation  of  Christianity  in  unoccupied  terri- 
tory.^ In  all  the  Mohammedan  region  outside  of  Egypt 
proper,  the  British  Government  practically  prohibits  re- 
ligious work  for  fear  of  arousing  Mohammedan  fanati- 
cism. '*If  free  scope  were  allowed  to  the  missionary  en- 
terprise," said  Lord  Cromer,  in  a  report  sent  home  in 

^Report  of  World  Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgh,  1910,  Vol.  I, 
African   section. 

2F.  Wurz,  "Die  Mohammedanische  Gefahr  in  Westafrika,"  16-18,  Basel, 
1904.  Carl  Meinhof,  "Zwingt  uns  die  Heidenmission  Muhammedanermis- 
sion  zu  treiben?  Osterwieck,  1906. 

Dr.  Walter  R.  Miller  writes  thus  in  the  Church  Missionary  Review,  July, 
1909:  "The  same  policy  which  in  Egypt  has  ignored  the  Christian  day  of 
rest  and  forces  Christian  clerks  to  work  all  through  it,  keeping  Friday,  the 
Mohammedan  one  day  in  seven,  as  a  day  of  rest;  which  until  the  last 
year  has  shown  its  neutrality  by  enforcing  Mohammedan  religious  instruc- 
tion in  government  schools  and  not  permitting  Christian  instruction;  in 
the  circumcision  of  pagan  recruits  for  the  army  and  freed  slave  pagan 
children;  the  handing  over  of  little  pagan  girls  and  boys,  saved  from 
slavery,  to  the  care  of  Moslem  emirs,  with  the  probability  of  their  becom- 
ing Moslems,  and  to  be  members  of  Mohammedan  harems;  subscriptions 
of  government  to  building  and  repairing  mosques;  attendance  at  Moham- 
medan festivals  by  government  officials  as  representatives;  the  gradual  re- 
duction of  strong  pagan  tribes — who  for  centuries  had  held  out  against  the 
Mohammedan  raiders  successfully — and  bringing  them  under  the  rule  of, 
and  to  pay  their  taxes  to,  these  same  old  enemies;  these  and  many  other 
things  show  the  tendency  of  the  government  policy." 


WHY  sTTij.  iTNoccrnrn  yy 

1905,  conccniinp:  the  Ecryptian  Sudan,  "it  would  not  only 
he  wholly  unproductive  of  result,  hut  would  also  create 
a  feelincr  of  resentment  culminating  possihly  in  actual 
disturhancc.  which  far  from  advancinj^.  would  almost 
certainly  throw  hack  that  work  of  civilization  which  all 
connected  with  the  country,  whether  or  not  connected 
with  the  missionary  enterprise,  have  so  much  at  heart. "^ 
This  policy  of  the  British  Government,  however,  is  in 
absolute  contradiction  to  the  teaching  of  experience  as 
shown  by  the  beneficial  influence  of  Christian  medical 
missions  among  fanatical  Mohammedans  in  Arabia,  Mo- 
rocco and  northwest  India.  We  may,  therefore,  hope 
that  it  will  not  continue  much  longer.- 

The  difficulties  of  entering  Somaliland,  especially  those 
parts  beyond  the  sphere  of  British  influence,  are  also 
political  as  well  as  due  to  Moslem  fanaticism.  Travelers 
there  require  special  permit  of  the  British  Government.-^ 

The  restrictions  to  all  Protestant  missionary  work  in 
the  Russian  Empire  are  well  known.  Mr.  W.  Davidson, 
Agent  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  in  Siberia, 
writes  from  Ekaterinburg:  'T  reckon  that  this  country 

'F.  F.  V.  Buxton,  "Egypt  and  the  Sudan,"  Church  Missionary  Intelli- 
gencer, July,   1907.  385- 

'Report  of  World  Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgh,  1910,  Vol.  I, 
"Africa,"  and  Vol.  VII,  "Missions  and  Governments,"  where  we  find, 
among  other  testimony,  this:  "A  high  commissioner  has  issued  instruc- 
tions that  the  missionary  must  wait  till  a  British  resident  in  such  and 
such  a  city  and  an  emir  to  whom  the  case  has  been  put  by  the  resident, 
'consent'  to  his  coming.  Meanwhile  he  is  rigidly  excluded  and  given  no 
opportunity  whatever  to  make  himself  acceptable.  No  missionary  is,  e.g., 
at  present  allowed  to  try  to  gain  a  footing  in  Kano  or  Kontagora,  though 
progress  in  rail  construction  and  in  other  matters  has  made  the  danger 
of  excitement  far  less  than  in  1907.  The  missions  do  not  consider  this 
defensible.  It  has  been  publicly  stated  that  the  course  recently  followed 
has  been  adopted  after  the  example  of  the  government  in  the  Egyptian 
Sudan.  Even  there  it  is  a  course  hard  to  justify,  and  in  northern  Nigeria 
it  is  indefensible." 

'A.    Herbert,  "Two   Dianas  in  Somaliland,"  %. 


yS  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

will  not  come  within  the  scope  of  your  deliberations, 
owing  to  the  fact  that  no  foreign  missionaries  are  per- 
mitted to  propagate,  teach  or  in  any  way  preach  in  this 
empire.  There  are  foreign  pastors,  however,  who  are 
attached  to  a  living  or  some  church,  and  who  have  the 
permission  of  the  authorities  to  minister  to  their  flocks, 
be  they  German,  French,  Swiss  or  English."^  And  the 
experience  of  the  Swedish  missionaries  seems  to  prove 
that  they  too  found  the  door  only  ajar.  "It  may  be  that 
very  few  know  that  the  Svenska  Missions-forbundet  in 
1880  started  missionary  work  in  Russia  and  two  years 
later  there  were  no  less  than  fourteen  Swedish  mission- 
aries gathered  together  in  St.  Petersburg.  Two  of  them 
were  sent  to  the  Samojeds  in  the  north,  two  to  the  Finns 
on  the  shore  of  Ladoga,  two  to  the  Baskirs  in  Ural,  two 
to  the  Armenians  and  Tartars  in  the  Caucasus  and  the 
rest  worked  in  St.  Petersburg  and  Kronstadt.  I  have 
been  preaching  for  a  couple  of  years  among  the  Russians 
and  traveled  from  north  to  south,  from  east  to  west 
of  that  great  country.  The  intolerance  and  persecution 
against  spiritual  movements  in  Russia  made  it  at  that 
time  impossible  to  go  on.  Two  of  our  brethren  were 
arrested  and  sent  as  prisoners  from  Archangel  to  Moskva 
on  the  road  to  Siberia,  but  they  were  released  there  and 
went  back  to  Sweden.  But  since  that  time  up  to  date 
our  society  has  not  altogether  withdrawn  their  mission 
in  Russia. "2 

The  opposition  of  all  Moslem  governments  to  the  en- 


^Letter  to  Commission  No.  i,  World  Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgh, 
1910.  For  a  fuller  account  of  the  religious  attitude  of  the  Russian  Church 
toward  Protestant  missions  see  Robert  E.  Speer,  "Missions  and  Modem 
History,"   Vol.   II,  619,  637-655,  and  the  authorities  there  quoted. 

^L.  E.  Hogberg  at  the  World  Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgh,  1910,  in 
paper  on  "Russian  and  Chinese  Turkistan." 


WHY  STILL  UNOCCUPIED  79 

trance  of  Christian  missions  is  a  matter  of  history.  Af- 
ghanistan antl  parts  of  Turkisli  aiul  independent  Arabia 
are  striking  examples  to-day  of  unoccupied  fields,  where 
the  chief  barrier  is  that  of  Moslem  political  authoritv 
and  not  primarily  religious  fanaticism.  The  Turkish 
Government  opposes  the  entrance  of  missionaries  in  its 
provinces  where  the  population  is  wholly  Moslem,  such 
as  Yemen,  Hasa  and  the  hinterland  of  Tripoli.^  "The 
penetration  of  Arabia,"  writes  Rev.  F.  J.  Barny,  "is  an 
extremely  difficult  undertaking  because  of  the  irresponsi- 
bility of  the  tribesmen.  The  members  of  our  Mission 
have  been  eager  to  get  inland,  but  the  way  hitherto  has 
been  effectually  shut  by  the  Turkish  officials,  especially 
those  who  were  extremely  jealous  of  allowing  foreigners 
to  enter.  Whether  the  new  regime  will  alter  this  remains 
to  be  seen.  For  the  past  three  years  there  has  been  an 
almost  constant  state  of  warfare  between  the  factions 
of  Ibn  Rashid,  Ibn  Saoud  and  the  Turks. '"- 

When  Ellsworth  Huntington,  in  1908,  reached  the  Af- 
ghan frontier  from  Perisa,  at  the  little  fort  of  Zulfagar 
"a  string  of  white  turbans  and  shining  gun-barrels  bobbed 
up  from  the  tamarisk  bushes"  and  a  heavily  armed  Af- 
ghan greeted  him  with  the  words,  "Go  away!  You  can't 
come  here ;  this  is  Afghanistan."  Later  on,  when  the 
rites  of  hospitality  were  celebrated,  the  captain  became 
more  amenable  and  added,  "Have  the  most  honorable 
travelers  had  a  comfortable  journey?  Most  gladly  would 
I  receive  them,  but  I  am  a  mere  captain.     If  I  let  them 


'Report   of   World    Missionary   Conference,    Edinburgh,    1910,    \'ol.    I. 

'See  for  example  A.  Fordcr,  "Ventures  Among  the  Arabs,"  141-166:  "The 
old  sheikh  then  addressed  me,  saying  'If  you  are  a  Christian,  go  and  sit 
among  the  cattle.'  .  .  .  One  man  offered  to  cut  my  throat  whilst  I  was 
sleeping  that  night,"  190,  191.  Cf.  the  quarterly  reports  of  the  Arabian 
Mission. 


80  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

SO  much  as  set  foot  on  this  side  of  the  river  my  king,  the 
great  Amir  of  Kabul,  would  cut  my  head  off."^  As  the 
people  of  the  western  province  are  by  all  accounts  the 
mildest  of  Afghanistan's  inhabitants,  the  Amir  evidently 
has  no  intention  of  allowing  foreigners  to  enter  his 
country. 

Afghanistan  is  perhaps  to-day  the  most  inaccessible 
country  in  the  world  for  the  missionary,  or  even  the 
traveler.  Not  only  is  the  Amir's  written  permission  neces- 
sary for  every  visitor,  but  the  Indian  Government  also 
must  consent,  and  no  European  is  allowed  to  cross  the 
frontier  without  permit.  It  is  almost  as  difficult  for 
those  who  are  employed  by  the  Amir  to  return  to  India. 
Even  the  British  political  agent  residing  at  Kabul  is  little 
better  than  a  prisoner,  and  hundreds  of  people  have  been 
killed  merely  on  suspicion  of  having  visited  him  and 
given  reports  of  the  doings  of  the  government.^  For 
over  fifty  years,  Christian  missions  have  been  established 
at  Peshawar  and  other  points  near  the  Afghan  border, 
but  not  one  step  toward  the  establishment  of  a  mission 
has  seemed  possible;  yet  as  long  ago  as  1818,  William 
Carey,  at  Calcutta,  made  a  translation  of  the  Bible  into 
Pushtu  for  the  Afghans,  and  in  1832  Joseph  Wolfe,  the 
Jewish  missionary,  actually  visited  Kabul  and  Bokhara, 
holding  discussions  with  the  mullahs.^ 

The  political  situation  in  Central  Asia  is  one  of  inter- 
national ambitions  and  jealousies.  This  closes  the  door. 
"There  is  only  one  heir  to  Central  Asia,"  wrote  the  Tsar 
Peter  I  in  his  will,  ''and  no  power  in  the  world  will 
be  able  to  prevent  him  from  taking  possession  of  his 

^"The  Afghan  Borderland,"  National  Geographic  Magazine,  1909,  866. 
»F.  A.  Martin,  "Under  the  Absolute  Amir,"  301. 
»C.  Field,  "With  the  Afghans,"  77. 


WHY  STILL  UNOCCUPIED  8t 

inheritance."^  And  a  French  traveler  describes  Britain's 
policy  on  her  northern  frontiers  in  these  words :  "A  hun- 
dred times  she  has  shifted  her  boundary,  using  diplomacy 
as  well  as  money,  and  when  that  did  not  suffice,  using 
force;  disquieted  neither  by  the  rights  which  she  was 
violating,  nor  by  the  protests  to  which  she  was  giving 
rise ;  heeding  nothing  but  her  own  interest  and  the  em- 
pire's security.  She  has  put  the  finishing  touch  to  her 
work  by  creating  on  the  forefront  of  her  line  of  defences 
a  succession  of  provinces  and  buflfer-states,  designed  in 
the  event  of  a  struggle  to  serve  as  a  shield  to  deaden  the 
initial  blow."  Lebedev,  in  *'Vers  I'lnde,"  published  in 
1898,  who  sums  up  Russia's  aspirations  in  the  East  quotes 
the  axiom  of  Skobelev,  "The  stronger  Russia  becomes  in 
Central  Asia,  the  weaker  will  England  become  in  India 
and  the  more  accommodating  in  Europe. "- 

The  intricacies  of  this  combination  lock  which  holds 
the  door  closed  against  missions,  both  on  the  Russian 
and  the  British  frontier,  can  only  be  learned  by  a  study 
of  the  various  Blue  Books  on  the  Anglo-Afghan  relations 
and  those  on  Russian  policy  in  Central  Asia.^  They  are 
summarized,  however,  in  the  striking  lines  of  Sir  Al- 
fred Lyall  placed  at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter.*  Po- 
litical hindrance  to  missionary  occupation  becomes  a  very 
complex  problem  when  it  concerns  a  state  jealous  of  its 
independence  on  the  one  hand  and  threatened  by  the 
astute  diplomacy  of  two  great  European  powers  on  the 
other,  together  with  the  religious  intolerance  of  its  in- 
habitants.    Such  is  the  case  in  Afghanistan.^ 

^B.   de   Lacoste,   "Around  Afghanistan,"   Preface,  9,   11. 

»Ibid..    16. 

•A.   Hamilton,   "Afghanistan,"   401. 

*C.   Field,    "With   the  Afghans,"    11. 

•The  Convention  signed  at  St.  Petersburg  on  Aug.  31,   1907,  in  regard  to 


82  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

Religious  intolerance  and  fanaticism  play  their  part  in 
other  countries  where  politics  alone  do  not  offer  hin- 
drance. The  two  great  examples  of  closed  doors  because 
of  this  barrier  are  the  holy  cities  of  Arabia,  Mecca  and 
Medina,  and  the  land  of  Tibet.  Elsewhere  religious 
fanaticism  is  a  hindrance  and  intolerance  may  prove  dan- 
gerous, but  in  these  two  countries  it  has  been  effectual 
in  closing  the  door  of  entrance  for  centuries. 

Before  dealing  with  these  typical  cases,  it  should  be 
noted,  however,  that  every  part  of  the  Moslem  world,  so 
much  of  which  is  in  our  survey,  when  out  of  touch  with 
Western  civilization  and  government  is  more  or  less  in- 
tolerant of  Christians.  When  Mr.  Hanns  Vischer  ven- 
tured on  his  journey  from  Tripoli  across  the  Sahara,  at- 
tempts were  made  to  prevent  him.  *'Why  should  the 
Christian  dog,"  said  they,  "be  permitted  to  cross  the  Sa- 
hara? Had  not  the  cursed  Christians  already  taken  the 
countries  all  around  Algiers,  Tunis,  Egypt  and  the  en- 
tire Sudan?"  and  once  and  again  attempts  were  made  by 
the  veiled  Tuaregs  on  religious  grounds  to  kill  him  and 
plunder  his  caravan,  as  they  had  murdered  Miss  Tinne, 
the  traveler.^  Only  last  year  (1909)  Douglas  Carruthers 
was  turned  out  of  Teima,  Arabia,  by  the  governor  be- 
cause of  religious  intolerance.  "Finding  me  quietly  sit^ 
ting  in  a  tent  pitched  in  the  garden  under  the  palms, 
his  armed  servants  covered  me  with  revolvers,  tore  all 
my  baggage  and  took  everything  they  fancied."  The 
people  made  insinuating  remarks  in  regard  to  the  fate 

spheres  of  influence  by  Sir  A.  Nicholson  and  the  Russian  Minister  of 
Foreign  Affairs,  M.  A.  Iswolski,  holds  out  the  hope  that  there  will  be  less 
friction  in  the  future  as  regards  the  relations  of  Great  Britain  and 
Russia  in  Central  Asia  and  Afghanistan,  and  it  may  facilitate  the  work  of 
missions,  at  least  in  Persia  if  not  in  Afghanistan.  (See  the  Geographical 
Journal,  November,  1907,  557. 
*H.  Vischer,  "Across  the  Sahara,"   18,  42,  164. 


WHY  STILL  UNOCCUPIED  83 

of  the  last  European,  Huber,  who  visited  their  town  in 
1863  and  was  eventually  murdered.^ 

Similar  experiences  are  related  by  all  Arabian  travelers 
and  have  come  under  my  own  observation.-  The  Atjch 
or  Achin  district  in  Sumatra  is  also  closed  by  fanati- 
cism.* 

Nor  is  religious  intolerance  found  only  among  Mos- 
lems. The  lone  Swedish  Mission  at  Addis  Adeba  in 
Abyssinia,  carries  on  its  work  among  the  Gallas.  There 
is  a  ready  entrance  for  the  Christian  evangelist,  but  the 
fanatical  opposition  of  the  debased  priests  of  the  Abys- 
sinian Church  and  the  drastic  punishments  inflicted  by 
Abyssinian  authorities  on  those  who  are  suspected  of  fa- 
voring another  form  of  Christianity  are  great  hindrances."* 
Meanwhile  Islam  wins  its  way  in  Abyssinia. 

The  long,  weary  and  fruitless  struggle  of  the  British 
with  the  "Mad  Mullah"  of  Somaliland,  resulting  in  the 
final  withdrawal  of  the  British,  is  another  recent  illus- 
tration of  the  spirit  and  strength  of  religious  fanaticism. 
Even  empire  builders  have  to  reckon  with  the  intolerance 
of  Islam.  Lord  Curzon  speaks  of  this  incident  as  a  "dis- 
ruption of  a  not  altogether  insignificant  corner  of  the 
Empire."'^ 

Kifographical  Journal,   March,    1910,   239. 

*S.  M.  Zwemer,  "Arabia,  the  Cradle  of  Islam,"  59,  379-  Cf.  Doughty, 
Forder,  Bent,  Miles,  Harris,  Manzoni,  Landberg  and  others  in  their  travels. 

■The  long  struggle  between  the  Mohammedans  of  Atjeh  and  the  Dutch 
Government  in  Sumatra  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  evidences  that 
neither  the  kind  indulgence  of  neutrality  nor  strong  repressive  measures 
can  tame  such  a  spirit.  Cf.  S.  Coolsma,  "De  Zendingseeuw  voor  Neder- 
landsch  Oost-Indie,"  300-499. 

♦Report  of  World  Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgh,  1910.  Vol.  I, 
"Africa." 

•"In  the  Somaliland  Blue-book  there  is  set  down  a  record  to  which  it 
would  be  difficult  to  find  a  parallel  in  modern  times.  It  is  clearly  shown 
that  the  Mullah  bluffed  the  King's  Government  out  of  a  country  misnamed 
a  protectorate,   caused   ministers  to  remove  their  troops   in  headlong   fligH 


§4  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

The  most  intolerant  part  of  all  Asia,  perhaps  of  the 
world  is  the  province  of  Hejaz  in  Arabia.  It  is  stated 
in  the  Koran  and  confirmed  by  many  traditions  that  this 
sacred  territory  holding  the  birthplace  and  tomb  of  Mo- 
hammed the  Prophet,  must  never  be  polluted  by  the  visits 
of  infidels.^  The  tradition  of  centuries  has,  therefore, 
practically  made  the  whole  region  about  Mecca  and 
Medina  forbidden  territory.  In  Jedda,  the  port  of 
Mecca,  Christians  are  tolerated,  but  were  Moslems  to 
have  their  way  not  a  merchant  or  a  consul  would  re- 
side there  for  a  single  day.  Even  those  who  die  in  the 
city  are  buried  on  an  island  at  sea!  Yet  more  than  a 
score  of  travelers  have  braved  the  awful  dangers  of  the 
transgression  and  escaped  the  pursuit  of  fanatics  to  tell 
the  tale  of  their  ventures.^  A  recent  volume  published 
under  the  striking  title,  ''Christians  at  Mecca,"  gives  a 

to  the  coast,  and  induced  them  to  desert  tribes,  very  numerous  in  the 
aggregate,  who  are  now  suffering  in  their  properties  and  their  persons  for 
their  misplaced  confidence  in  the  'gracious  favor  and  protection  of  her 
majesty  the  Queen-Empress'  which  they  were  promised  by  treaty."— Mili- 
tary Correspondent,  London  Times,  April  15,  1910. 

iKoran,  IX,  27;  Mishkat-uI-Misabih,  Book  XL,  Chapter  15;  S.  M. 
Zwemer,  "Arabia,  the  Cradle  of  Islam,"  209. 

2The  first  account  of  Europeans  visiting  Mecca  is  that  of  Ludovico  Bar- 
tema,  a  gentleman  of  Rome,  who  visited  the  city  in  1503;  his  narrative  was 
published  in  1555.  The  first  Englishman  was  Joseph  Pitts,  the  sailor  from 
Exeter,  in  1678;  then  followed  the  great  Arabian  traveler,  John  Lewis 
Burckhardt,  1814;  Burton  in  1853  visited  both  Mecca  and  Medina;  H, 
Bicknell  made  the  pilgrimage  in  1862  and  T.  F.  Keane  in  1880.  The  narra- 
tives of  each  of  these  pilgrims  have  been  published,  and  from  them,  and  the 
travels  of  AH  Bey  and  others,  we  know  something  of  the  Holy  Land  of 
Arabia.  Ali  Bey  was  in  reality  a  Spaniard,  called  Juan  Badia  y  Seblich, 
who  visited  Mecca  and  Medina  in  1807  and  left  a  long  account  of  his  travels 
in  two  volumes,  illustrated  by  many  beautiful  engravings.  Burton's  account 
of  his  pilgrimage  is  best  known,  but  Burckhardt's  is  more  accurate  and 
scholarly.  Of  modern  books,  that  of  the  Dutch  scholar,  Snouck  Hurgronje, 
who  resided  in  Mecca  for  a  long  time,  is  by  far  the  best.  His  "Mekka,"  in 
two  volumes,  is  accompanied  by  an  atlas  of  photographs  and  gives  a  com- 
plete history  of  the  city  as  well  as  a  full  account  of  its  inhabitants  and  of 
the  Java  pilgrimage. 


■63 


IS 

o  - 


S3 
8 '5 


5  rt 


WHY  STILL  UNOCCUPIED  85 

resume  of  what  these  men  endured  from  the  race  liatred 
barbed  by  rehgion,  which  we  call  fanaticism,  before  they 
reached  the  holy  city.^  Leon  Roches  was  seized  by 
friendly  captors  in  the  nick  of  time  and  hurried  off  to 
Taiz,  or  he  would  have  died  the  death.  Burton  returned 
to  tell  his  tale.  Although  at  one  time  his  disguise  was 
penetrated  by  an  Arab,  this  man  was  "fortunately"  found 
stabbed  to  death  the  next  morning !  He  made  his  sketches 
and  took  his  notes  on  slips  of  paper  so  small  that  they 
could  be  concealed  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand,  keeping 
them  and  his  pencils  in  a  red  morocco  pocket-Koran  case. 
All  of  those  whose  accounts  have  come  down  to 
us  were  practically  compelled  to  deny  their  Christian 
faith  in  wresting  the  secrets  of  the  sacred  cities.  The 
only  European.  Burton  says,  who  visited  Mecca  without 
apostatizing  was  Bertolucci,  Swedish  consul  at  Cairo. 
Doughty  tells  many  a  story  of  the  ''direful  city."  Among 
others,  of  a  Christian  who  missed  his  way  eighty  miles 
northeast  of  Medina,  and  on  a  sudden  discovered  that 
he  was  in  the  holy  city.  Refusing  to  abjure  his  faith, 
he  was  shot  dead.  He  also  tells  of  Thomas  Keith,  a 
private  in  the  72nd  Highlanders  who,  in  181 5,  was  taken 
prisoner   at  Rosetta  and   forced  to  become   a   Moslem; 

*A.  Rain,  "Christians  at  Mecca,"  150,  164,  165,  190,  261,  264,  265,  268,  269, 
270. 

The  writer  has  collected  and  edited  the  accounts  of  no  less  than  a 
score  of  Europeans,  most  of  them  nominal  Christians,  who  penetrated 
Mecca  in  disguise.  One  might  divide  them  mto  three  groups:  Those  who 
went  unwillingly,  or,  as  it  were,  by  accident,  like  Joseph  Pitts,  the  sailor 
boy  of  Exeter,  and  Johann  W'ild;  the  votaries  of  science,  among  whom 
Seetzen,  Burckhardt  and  Hurgronje  stand  out  supreme;  and,  lastly,  those 
who  were  impelled  merely  by  love  of  adventure  or  curiosity — Von  Maltzan, 
Bicknell,  Keane  and  Courtellemont.  Burton  stands  in  a  class  by  himself, 
although  in  accuracy  of  scientific  description  he  takes  second  place  to  the 
Hollander  Hurgronje,  whose  sociological  studies  carried  on  during  a  resi- 
dence of  six  months  have  given  us  the  standard  book  on  Mecca. 


86  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

he  became  a  mameluke  and  actually  rose  to  become 
governor  of  Medina,  dying  in  the  wars  against  the  Wah- 
habis!  Doughty  himself  nearly  lost  his  life  on  the  final 
stage  of  his  journey  to  the  coast.  He  writes:  ''I  was 
now  to  pass  a  circuit  in  whose  pretended  divine  law 
there  is  no  refuge  for  the  alien;  whose  people  shut  up 
the  ways  of  the  common  earth ;  and  where  any  felon 
of  theirs  in  comparison  with  a  Nasrany  [Christian] 
is  one  of  the  people  of  Allah."  Tidings  spread  that  a 
Christian  was  in  the  neighborhood.  His  friends  in  the 
caravan  left  him  to  his  fate,  and  a  mad  sheriff  drew  a 
"butchery  sword-knife"  and  with  cursing  and  reviling 
shook  his  fists  in  the  Christian's  face.  Doughty  was  des- 
poiled of  his  money  and  possessions  and  brutally  struck 
on  the  way  to  Taif.  There  he  was  received  with  kind- 
ness and  given  safe  escort  to  Jedda.^ 

With  the  building  of  the  Hejaz  Railway,  which  has 
already  reached  Medina  from  Damascus,  it  is  only  a 
question  of  time  before  the  blast  of  the  locomotive  will 
be  heard  within  the  precincts  of  the  Kaaba.  There  will 
be  a  branch  line  to  Jedda,  and  it  is  possible  that  the  day 
may  not  be  far  distant  when  travelers  may  visit  the 
sacred  cities  of  the  Moslem  world  with  impunity.  At 
present  the  door  seems  barred. 

Tibet  is  also  closed  by  intolerance  in  the  name  of  re- 
ligion.^ The  anti-foreign  prejudice  and  religious  fanati- 
cism of  the  Tibetans  is  of  long  duration.  The  record  of 
travel  to  Lhasa  has,  until  recent  years,  been  a  record  of 
failure.     'Tn  the  whole  history  of  exploration  there  is 


*C.  M.   Doughty,  "Arabia  Deserta,"  Vol.   II,  52,  53,   157,   158,  499,  503. 

'A.  H.  S.  Landor,  "In  the  Forbidden  Land,"  Vol  I,  196,  and  his  experi- 
ences as  related  in  Vol.  II.  With  due  allowance  for  possible  exaggeration, 
the  story  is  terrible  enough  to  deter  the  faint-hearted. 


I 


WHY  STILL   UNOCCUriED  8/ 

no  more  curious  map  than  that  which  shows  the  tangled 
lines  of  travelers'  routes  toward  this  city,  coming  in 
from  all  sides,  north,  south,  east  and  west,  crossing, 
inter-locking,  retracing,  all  with  one  goal  and  all  baffled, 
some  soon  after  the  journey  had  begun,  some  when  the 
travelers  might  almost  believe  that  the  next  hill  would 
give  them  a  distant  glimpse  of  the  golden  roofs  of  tlie 
Potala."^  Landon  gives  the  names  of  those  who  made 
the  attempt,  from  the  Jesuit  spies  in  1716  to  the  time 
of  Rockhill,  the  Rijnharts,  Annie  Taylor,  the  Little- 
dales  and  Sven  Hedin.- 

The  closing  of  Tibet  has  been  variously  explained. 
Many  travelers  believe  that  it  was  in  its  origin  a  Chinese 
device  adopted  about  the  year  1720,  with  the  idea  of 
making  Tibet  a  buffer  state.  To-day,  however,  the  ex- 
clusion of  foreigners  from  Tibet  is  the  work  of  the 
lamas,  and  is  on  religious  grounds.^  The  great  closed 
land  of  yesterday  may,  however,  be  open  to-morrow.  The 
expedition  of  Col.  Younghusband  broke  the  seal,  and 
although  the  doors  have  not  yet  been  thrown  wide-open, 
yet  they  stand  ajar.  The  Dalai  Lama,  the  real  head  of 
Tibetan  Buddhism,  is  a  wanderer  and  a  refugee.  His 
flight  from  Tibet  to  Darjceling,  following  the  friction 
between  the  Chinese  authorities  and  the  Tibetans,  is 
the  beginning  of  coming  political  change.  To-day  Lhasa 
is  occupied  by  Chinese  soldiers,  and  Tibet  will  probably 
become  in  reality  another  province  of  the  Chinese  Em- 
pire, equally  accessible  to  the  missionary  as  far  as  politics 
and  religion  are  concerned.  Then  the  work  of  prepara- 
tion will  make  the  difficult  task  more  easy.    The  language 


*P.  Landon,  "The  Opening  of  Tibet,"  15. 
'Ibid.,  8-17. 
•Ibid.,  20. 


88  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION   FIELDS 

has  been  learned,  the  Scriptures  have  been  translated  and 
some  of  the  Tibetans  on  the  borders  have  already  been 
won  for  Christ.^ 

However  great  the  difficulties  still  remaining,  the  grad- 
ual breaking  down  of  barriers  that  have  heretofore  ex- 
isted in  the  unoccupied  fields  of  the  world,  whether 
physical,  political  or  religious,  is  a  call  to  greater  faith 
and  enterprise. 

There  are  indications  that  even  within  the  borders 
of  Afghanistan  there  are  the  beginnings  of  toler- 
ance and  the  dawn  of  a  new  era  in  place  of  the  old  despo- 
tism. The  Amir  of  Afghanistan  himself,  in  a  speech  at 
Lahore,  is  reported  to  have  said:  'Tn  a  single  sentence 
I  give  you  my  whole  exhortation  (to  the  Mussulmans 
of  India)  :  acquire  knowledge — you  hear  me,  acquire 
knowledge.  I  say  it  a  third  time,  acquire  knowledge. 
Oh,  my  brothers,  remain  not  ignorant,  or  what  is  worse, 
remain  not  ignorant  of  your  ignorance.  There  are  those 
who  utter  solemn  warnings  in  your  ears,  who  urge  that 
Mohammedans  have  naught  to  do  with  modern  philoso- 
phy, and  who  declaim  against  the  western  sciences  as 
against  evil.  I  am  not  among  them  ...  I  say,  pursue 
knowledge  wherever  it  is  to  be  found.     But  this  also 

^The  following  petition  is  said  to  have  been  sent  by  Tibetans  from  Lhasa 
to  China:  "We  cannot  bear  further  ill  treatment.  If  more  troops  come, 
our  power  will  be  lost,  and  the  Delai  Lama  will  remain  in  sorrow.  Tibet 
is  a  holy  place.  If  the  existing  system  of  law  be  abolished,  the  Buddhist 
religion  will  surely  be  lost.  The  Tibetans  care  more  for  religion  than  for 
their  lives.  The  Delai  Lama  pointed  out  these  mistakes  from  his  camp  to 
the  Resident,  but  Lien  disregarded  his  letter.  The  Sarcom  of  Tibet  pro- 
longed his  journey.  Many  interruptions  occurred.  Therefore  the  Tibetans 
stopped  supplies  for  Lien.  If  the  Ambans  and  the  troops  are  not  with- 
drawn, all  Tibetans  will  probably  revolt  and  much  trouble  win  follow." 
This  message  closes  with  a  prayer  to  the  Emperor  to  treat  the  Tibetans 
kindly  as  he  has  done  heretofore,  and  thereby  earn  their  perpetual  grati* 
tude.     (London   Times,  weekly  edition,  Jan.   21,   1910.) 

See  also  Baptist  Missionary  Magazine,  October,  19c?,  376. 


\j&*y 


LAMAS     FKOM     SIKKIM 


Both  of  them  are  dressed  in  their  priestly  robes,  and  one  has  in  his  hands 
the  portable  prayer  wheel,   and   the   bell   which   calls   for  service.        88 


WHY   STII.I.   UNOCCUPIED  89 

I  declare  with  all  the  emphasis  at  my  command :  science 
is  the  superstructure,  don't  mistake  it  for  the  foundation. 
The  foundation  must  always  be  religion.  .  .  .  Start  with 
the  heart,  and  when  that  is  secure  go  on  to  the  head. 
Some  would  like  to  finish  with  the  heart ;  they  are  afraid 
of  the  head,  but  they  are  wrong."^  If  modern  educa- 
tion enters  Afghanistan,  the  door  will  not  long  be  closed 
against  the  missionary. 

Dr.  Karl  Kumm,  after  his  last  journey  across  the  Su- 
dan, reports  that  he  was  well  received  even  by  Senussi 
dervishes,  whose  fanaticism  and  intolerance  of  Europeans 
is  proverbial,  and  Hanns  Vischer  says  that  throughout 
the  whole  of  North  Africa  religious  fanaticism  is  de- 
creasing, and  that  even  among  these  same  Senussi  there 
were  men  of  good  faith  who  treated  him  as  a  true  friend 
and  helped  him  on  his  journey.- 

As  regards  Central  Asia,  Col.  Wingate  writes :  "If  the 
missionary  is  going  to  wait  until  the  foreign  office  will 
sanction  his  going,  which  means  guaranteeing  his  pro- 
tection and  avenging  any  injury  done  to  him ;  or  if  the 
missionary  is  to  wait  until  it  is  safe  to  take  his  wife  and 
children  with  him  into  Central  Asia,  then  the  doors  are 
closed,  but  it  is  not  closed  against  those  who  are  qualified 
to  go,  .  .  .  men  willing  to  leave  their  family  behind, 
knowing  the  language,  strong,  robust,  fearless  and  tact- 
ful."^ 

Because  a  land  is  hot  and  fever-ridden,  or  cold  and 
dismal ;  because  the  people  are  ignorant,  fanatical,  stupid, 
or  repulsive,  does  that  shut  them  ofiF  once  and  for  all 
from  any  hope  of  the  benefits  of  the  Gospel?     If  such 

^Church  Missionary  Intelligencer,  July,  1907,  422. 

•U.   Vischer,    ".Across   the   Sahara,"   68-69. 

•Letter  to  Commission  No.   i,  World  Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgh, 

IQIO. 


go  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

be  the  case,  then  Paten's  Hfe  was  a  failure,  and  Living- 
stone's monument  in  Westminster  Abbey  is  a  mockery. 
Why  should  thousands  of  bales  of  American  piece  goods 
be  transported  yearly  by  caravan  from  Katif,  on  the 
Persian  Gulf,  to  the  bazaars  of  Nejd,  or  American  steel 
rails  be  used  for  the  Mecca  railroad,  while  the  Gospel 
messenger  dares  not  even  knock  at  the  door? 

Long  neglect,  trying  climates,  political  barriers,  na- 
tional jealousies  and  religious  intolerance  in  all  the  un- 
occupied fields  are  only  a  challenge  to  faith  and  intended 
of  God  to  lead  us  to  prayer.  All  difficulties  can  be  sur- 
mounted by  those  who  have  faith  in  God.  The  kingdoms 
and  the  governments  of  this  world  have  frontiers  which 
must  not  be  crossed,  but  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  knows 
no  frontier.  It  never  has  been  kept  within  bounds.  It 
is  a  message  for  the  whole  race,  and  the  very  fact  that 
there  are  millions  of  souls  who  have  never  heard  the 
message  becomes  the  strongest  of  reasons  why  we  must 
carry  it  to  them.  Every  year  we  hear  of  further  advance 
into  these  regions  of  the  world  by  commerce,  by  travelers, 
and  by  men  of  science.  If  they  can  open  a  way  for  them- 
selves, in  spite  of  all  these  difficulties,  shall  the  ambassa- 
dors of  the  Cross  shrink  back? 

God  can  open  doors.  He  is,  as  the  Moslems  say,  "the 
Great  Opener."^  He  opens  the  lips  of  the  dumb  to  song, 
the  eyes  of  the  blind  to  sight,  and  the  prison  house  to 
the  captive.  He  opens  the  doors  of  utterance  and  en- 
trance for  the  Gospel.  He  opens  graves  and  gates,  the 
windows  of  heaven  and  the  bars  of  death.  He  holds  all 
the  keys  of  every  situation.  He  opens,  and  no  man  can 
shut.    He  shuts  and  no  man  can  open.    God,  the  Opener, 

'See  article  on  "God  the  Opener,"  The  Christian  Intelligencer,  New  YorJc, 
Nov,  4,  1891. 


WHY  STIIX  UNOCCUPIED  QI 

is  not  on  tlic  outside,  but  on  the  inside  of  the  barred 
doorway.  "Knock  and  it  shall  be  opened  ;"  and  the  knock 
of  faith  surely  implies  waiting  at  the  door  with  a  pur- 
pose that  remains  unshaken,  a  faith  that  never  wavers. 
"When  the  doors  were  shut,"  He  entered.^  Paul's  ex- 
perience at  Ephesus  is  typical.  "A  great  and  effectual 
door  has  been  opened  unto  me,  and  there  are  many  ad- 
versaries."- God  the  Opener  made  the  door  effectual, 
and  adversaries  made  it  great.  The  greater  the  opposi- 
tion, the  greater  the  victory. 

"Uplifted  are  the  gates  of  brass,  the  bars  of  iron  yield; 
Behold  the  King  of  glory  pass,  The  Cross  hath  won  the  field." 

*John  20:19. 
»I   Cor.   16:8-9. 


SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 


^ 


i 


"While  vast  continents  are  shrouded  in  almost  utter  darkness, 
and  hundreds  of  millions  suffer  the  horrors  of  heathenism  or  of 
Islam,  the  burden  of  proof  lies  upon  you  to  show  that  the  cir- 
cumstances in  which  God  has  placed  you  were  meant  by  Him  to 
keep  you  out  of  the  foreign  mission  field." 

— Ion  Keith  Falconer. 

"So  the  woman  was  thrown  alive  into  a  huge  cauldron  of 
boiling  water  and  boiled  down  to  soup,  and  a  basin  of  this  soup 
was  given  to  the  man,  who  was  forced  to  drink  it,  and  after 
drinking  it  he  was  hanged.  In  this  case  the  Amir's  object  was 
to  punish,  not  only  in  this  life,  but  in  the  next;  for  a  cannibal 
cannot  enjoy  the  delights  of  Paradise  depicted  in  the  Koran." 

— Frank  A.  Martin  (Under  the  Absolute  Amir,  1907,  p.  163.) 

"Masses  indeed;  and  yet,  singular  to  say,  if  thou  follow  them 
.  .  .  into  their  garrets  and  hutches,  the  masses  consist  of  all 
units.  Every  unit  of  whom  has  his  own  heart  and  sorrows, 
stands  covered  with  his  own  skin,  and  if  you  prick  him  he  will 
bleed.  Dreary,  languid  do  these  struggle  in  their  obscure  remote- 
ness, their  hearth  cheerless,  their  diet  thin.  For  them  in  this 
world  rises  no  Era  of  Hope.  Untaught,  uncomforted,  unfed." 
— Thomas  Carlyle  (French  Revolution). 


94 


Chapter  IV 
SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

One  hundred  years  ago,  the  note  of  emphasis  in  the 
argument  for  missions  was  theological ;  to-day  it  is  so- 
ciological. Then  it  was  common  to  regard  missions  as 
exclusively  a  religious  crusade  with  a  strictly  evangelistic 
aim.  To-day  the  scope  and  meaning  of  the  word  is 
larger  and  includes  the  social  regeneration  of  the  world 
and  the  uplift  of  the  non-Christian  nations.  As  Dr. 
Dennis  remarks,  "The  evangelistic  aim  will  ever  be  first 
and  unimpeachable  in  its  import  and  dignity,"^  yet  a 
call  for  the  occupation  of  the  unoccupied  fields  might 
very  properly  be  based  solely  on  the  social  conditions  of 
the  lands  which  are  still  without  Christ  and  therefore 
without  hope.^ 

The  unoccupied  fields  of  the  world  in  all  their  wide 
extent,  with  their  vast  populations  and  the  stupendous 
difficulties  that  face  those  who  would  enter  them,  present 
a  social  problem  of  immense  magnitude.  Within  the 
lands  and  areas  of  this  survey  is  the  largest  aggregate 
of  the  three  classes  which  form  the  social  problem  in  all 
great  cities,  the  defectives,  the  delinquents  and  the  de- 
pendents.^    Because  the  unoccupied  fields  of  the  world 

»J.  S.  Dennis.  "Christian  Missions  and  Social  Progress,"  Vol.  I.  23. 
*Cf.  Jesus  Christ's  parable.  Matt.  25:31-46. 

»C.  R-  Henderson,  "Introduction  to  the  Study  of  the  Dependent,  De- 
fective and  Delinquent  Classes." 

95 


96  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

are  not  unoccupied  by  sin  in  its  manifold  forms  and 
tendencies  and  its  dread  consequences, — suffering,  sor- 
row, degradation,  their  very  condition  is  an  appeal.  Be- 
cause we  believe  in  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  in  the 
brotherhood  of  man,  and  therefore  in  the  unity  and  soli- 
darity of  the  human  race,  the  unoccupied  fields  of  the 
world  should  recall  us  to  a  true  sense  of  proportion  in  the 
work  of  world  evangelization. 

A  map  showing  the  literacy  and  illiteracy  of  the  world 
to-day  bears  a  striking  resemblance  to  a  map  of  the  un- 
occupied fields.  In  most  of  the  unoccupied  fields  of  the 
world,  less  than  ten  per  cent  of  the  people  are  able  to 
read  and  write  their  own  names;  in  some  of  them  they 
have  not  even  an  alphabet,  in  others  no  literature.^ 

Within  the  great  areas  of  the  unoccupied  fields  of  the 
world,  there  are  large  centers  of  population.  In  China 
alone,  as  we  saw,  there  are  over  1,500  cities  without  a 
resident  missionary !  We  gain  a  real  conception  of  their 
woful  need  when  we  consider  what  we  would  lose  if  our 
cities  were  without  Christianity.  Our  churches  would 
go  and  we  would  have  to  wipe  out  every  mission  Sunday 
School.  The  public  schools,  with  all  they  mean,  would 
be  absent.  Then  the  hospitals  would  go.  If  a  man  should 
fall  on  the  street,  there  would  be  no  ambulance.  Next 
to  go  would  be  our  orphanages  and  asylums  and  all  our 
organized  charities.  Good  government  would  go,  and 
property  values  tumble.  Trade  would  suffer  irreparable 
loss.  We  and  our  city  would  be  actually  ''heathen"  in 
the  worst  sense  of  the  word.^ 

Dr.  James  S.  Dennis,  in  his  monumental  sociological 

^"Geography  of  the  Great  Languages,"   by  E.   H.   Babbitt    (with  map  of 
the  World's  Literacy)  in  The  World's  Work,  February,   1908. 
2J.  I.  Vance,  "If  Mine  Were  a  Heathen  City,"  8. 


■iYrLi>    i  Ru.M     KALLLlilSlAN 
(See  sketch  of  their  character  in   Chapter   I.) 


SOCIAL    CONDITIONS  97 

Study  of  missions,  gives  a  classification  of  the  social  evils 
of  the  non-Christian  world,  dividing  them  into  seven 
groups :  the  individual  group,  the  family  group,  the 
tribal  group,  the  social  group,  the  national  group,  the 
commercial  group  and  the  religious  group.  While  he 
does  not  ignore  the  excellencies  and  virtues  both  indi- 
vidual and  social  which  exist  in  the  non-Christian  world, 
and  although  most  of  his  evidence  comes  from  countries 
where  Missions  or  Christian  governments  have  already 
exerted  influence  to  a  large  extent  yet,  his  terrible  ar- 
raignment of  the  every-day  conditions  in  the  lands  that 
have  not  yet  been  fully  reached  by  the  iniiuence  of  the 
Gospel  is  as  alarming  as  it  is  convincing.^  Since  he 
himself  admits  that  his  classification  of  the  social  evils 
of  the  non-Christian  world  is  confessedly  artificial  and 
tentative, 2  and  as  the  mass  of  material  and  authorities 
which  he  gives  is  now  accessible  to  most  students  of 
missions,  and  applies  the  more  emphatically  to  the  lands 
wholly  unoccupied  by  missionaries  and,  therefore,  never 
yet  submitted  to  sociological  study  by  missionaries,  we 
refer  to  his  scholarly  work  for  a  general  survey.  This 
chapter  deals  with  particulars  in  regard  to  the  chief  lands 
still  unoccupied. 

Before  considering  in  detail  the  races  that  inhabit  and 
some  of  the  special  conditions  that  obtain  in  those  lands 
which  are  still  wholly  without  Christ  and,  therefore,  with- 
out social  hope,  we  may  well  summarize  the  general  situ- 
ation in  the  words  of  the  apostle  Paul.  The  evidence 
which  follows  will  prove  that  there  is  no  difference  be- 
tween the  unoccupied  field  in  A.  D.  60  and  the  unoccu- 
pied field  in  A.  D.  1910.     What  it  was  then  is  thus  fear- 

'J.  S.  Dennis,  "Christian  Missions  and  Social  Progress,"  3  vols. 
'Ibid,   Vol.   I,  ;6. 


98  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

lessly,  but  faithfully,  pictured:  "Even  as  they  did  not 
like  to  retain  God  in  their  knowledge,  God  gave  them 
over  to  a  reprobate  mind,  to  do  those  things  which  are 
not  convenient ;  being  filled  with  all  unrighteousness, 
fornication,  wickedness,  covetousness,  maliciousness,  full 
of  envy,  murder,  debate,  deceit,  malignity ;  whisperers, 
backbiters,  haters  of  God,  despiteful,  proud,  boasters, 
inventors  of  evil  things,  disobedient  to  parents,  without 
understanding,  covenant  breakers,  without  natural  af- 
fection, implacable,  unmerciful :  who,  knowing  the  judg- 
ment of  God,  that  they  which  commit  such  things  are 
worthy  of  death,  not  only  do  the  same,  but  have  pleasure 
in  them  that  do  them."^ 

The  races  inhabiting  the  unoccupied  fields  of  the  world 
are  as  we  have  already  shown  in  Chapter  I,  different  in 
origin,  character,  and  economic  and  social  environment. 
Some  live  in  the  most  absolute  barbarism,  and  others 
have  advanced  to  a  comparatively  high  stage  of  civiliza- 
tion under  Islam  or  Buddhism. 

Life  in  the  unexplored,  low-lying  districts  of  Papua, 
for  example,  is  most  primitive.  Some  of  the  tribesmen 
are  even  described  as  "duck-footed."  When  Walker 
visited  Agai  Ambu,  the  people  scarcely  ventured  to  come 
near  him.  They  had,  for  thousands  of  years,  according 
to  native  tradition,  lived  in  the  swamps,  never  leaving 
their  morass,  and  scarcely  able  to  walk  properly  on  hard 
ground,  and  if  not  web-footed  altogether,  the  epidermal 
growth,  caused  by  their  mode  of  life,  has  certainly  made 
them  half-webbed.^ 

While  the  architecture,  the  art  and  the  home- 
life    of    the    people    of    Bhutan,    for    example,  are  evi- 

^Romans  1:28-32.     Cf.  also  the  entire  chapter  in  this  connection. 
»H.  W.  Walker,  "Wanderings  Among  South  Sea  Savages,"  172-179. 


SOCIAL   CONDITIONS  99 

donees  that  their  civiHzation  is  on  almost  as  high  a  plane 
as  their  country  is  on  a  high  altitude.  Besides  these 
evident  contrasts,  the  people  to  be  evangelized  arc  either 
Animists,  or  have  for  centuries  been  dominated  in  their 
social  life  by  Islam,  the  various  forms  of  Buddhism,  Hin- 
duism or  Confucianism.  Each  has  created  its  own  re- 
ligious atmosphere  and  environment. 

The  survey  of  present  social  conditions  may  well  begin 
with  the  Dark  Continent.  In  most  of  the  unoccupied 
area  of  Africa,  human  slavery  is  still  justified,  and  in 
many  places  carried  on.  The  slave  caravans  are  doubt- 
less smaller  in  number  and  the  suffering  of  the  slaves 
has  greatly  decreased  in  consequence,  but  the  evidences 
of  the  old  time  traffic  are  seen  on  every  hand.  Slave 
skeletons  lie  everywhere  along  the  caravan  roads  of  the 
Sahara  and  the  Sudan,  for  the  Arab  traders  who  carried 
their  young  slaves  from  Bornu  to  the  coast  had  a  pe- 
culiar way  of  looking  after  them.  "When  the  children 
had  been  fed  and  watered  at  a  well,  some  distant  land- 
mark was  pointed  out  to  them.  There  they  were  told 
they  would  get  water  and  food.  Then  with  blows  and 
curses  they  were  driven  off,  the  Arabs  mounted  their 
camels  or  horses  and  rode  off,  quite  unmindful  of  the  un- 
fortunate children.  Those  who  arrived  at  the  next  well 
with  the  caravan  received  food  and  drink,  and  were 
driven  on  the  next  morning  in  the  same  way.  Those  who 
did  not  arrive — well — the  traders  could  afford  to  lose 
eighty  per  cent,  of  their  slaves  on  the  way  to  the  coast 
and  yet  make  a  profit."^ 

The  well-nigh  incredible  horrors  of  this  traffic  in  human 
flesh  and  the  pitiless  cruelties  that  accompany    it  are  not 

*H.  Vischcr,  "Across  the  Sahara,"  82,  195,  223,  238. 


100  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

altogether  of  the  past.^  In  Arabia,  the  slave-trade  is 
openly  carried  on  at  Mecca  and  other  pilgrim  centers.^ 

There  are  still  some  centers  for  the  slave  trade  in 
Africa,  protected  by  Koranic  law,  in  spite  of  European 
governments.  In  the  Central  Sudan,  we  are  told,  there 
are  tribes  which  are  being  gradually  exterminated  by 
the  slave-raiding  of  pious  Mohammedans  who  freely  de- 
clare that  they  are  doing  this  for  the  glory  of  their 
prophet.^ 

The  unoccupied  fields,  both  in  Asia  and  Africa,  are 
generally  backward  as  regards  all  economic  progress,  save 
in  so  far  as  they  have  come  in  touch  with  Western 
civilization.  Arabia  has  neither  roads  nor  vehicles  and 
its  condition  is  patriarchal.    Tibet  is  a  country  that  has 


^Travers  Buxton,  Esq.,  in  his  article  on  "Slavery  as  It  Exists  To-day," 
gives  a  map  of  the  present-day  slave  centers,  and,  quoting  Lord  Cromer, 
says  It  is  very  difficult  to  prevent  the  trade  which  goes  on  in  slaves  between 
Arabia  and  Turkey  smuggled  from  the  African  coast.  In  Kordofan,  Darfur, 
Wadai  and  Tripoli  the  trade  is  carried  on  to-day,  and  for  the  past  ten  years 
there  has  been  a  regular  slave  traffic  between  West  Africa  to  Mecca  by  way 
of  the  Chan  River,  The  whole  article  presents  startling  evidence  on  this 
question.     See  The  Missionary  Review  of  the  World,  June,   1910, 

2C.  M.  Doughty,  "Arabia  Deserta,"  Vol.  I,  209,  553;  Vol.  II,  53,  491.  S. 
M.  Zwemer,  "Islam,  a  Challenge  to  Faith,"  127,  128.  Hadji  Khan,  "With 
the  Pilgrims  to  Mecca,  the  Great  Pilgrimage  of  A.  H,  1319"  (A.  D.  1902), 
306-308. 

^"I  may  not  describe  the  awful  things  which  are  being  perpetrated  in 
Central  Africa  by  Moslem  fiends.  My  little  boys  tell  me  of  the  sights  they 
have  seen  and  the  treatment  they  have  received;  of  relatives  flayed  like 
goats  in  their  presence  or  sold  by  Mohammedans  to  cannibals;  of  their  own 
mothers  left  with  a  spear  through  them,  because  within  a  short  time  of 
their  giving  birth  they  have  been  unable  to  travel  fast,  and  left  writhing 
on  the  ground,  not  killed  outright,  while  their  children  have  been  ruth- 
lessly torn  away,  never  again  to  see  them.  Mohammedan  men  saturated 
with  Christian  thought,  and  perhaps  brought  up  and  educated  in  Christian 
lands  and  trying  to  read  their  enlightened  thoughts  into  the  Moslem  re- 
ligion, will  state  that  these  are  the  excrescences,  the  mere  accompaniment 
of  that  religion.  I  say  they  are  the  center  and  heart  of  Islam."— Dr.  W.  R. 
Miller,  "The  Moral  Condition  of  Moslem  Lands,"  Church  Missionary 
Review,  November,  1909,  649. 


SOCIAL   CONDITIONS  lOI 

not  a  wliocl  witliin  its  borders  except  prayer-wheels.' 
It  is  a  land  of  filth  and  needs  the  p^ospcl  of  soap  and 
sanitation  as  well  as  the  Gospel  of  salvation.-  Mongolia 
also  is  one  of  the  most  backward  countries  in  the  world. 
"The  condition  of  the  Mongols  is  very  miserable,  as  they 
are  oppressed  and  fleeced  by  the  Chinese,  their  own  lamas 
and  monks,  their  native  princes  and  money-lenders  alike. "^ 
The  great  cities  of  these  lands  suflfer  horrors  of  insani- 
tation.  Conditions  in  Lhasa  are  indescribable.*  Kabul, 
the  capital  of  Afghanistan,  has  neither  drainage  nor  sani- 
tation. The  water  supply  of  the  city  is  full  of  impurity, 
and  one  stream  serves  as  sewer  and  water  main  for  the 
people.  Cholera  and  other  epidemics  necessarily  follow 
and  periodically  carry  off  thousands  of  the  inhabitants. 
The  same  is  true  of  Jedda  and  Mecca. ^  Lacoste  and 
Sven  Hedin  speak  of  the  utter  lack  of  sanitation  at 
Yarkand  and  Kashgar.  *'A  nauseous  smell  of  decayed 
melons  filled  the  whole  town,  which  looks  like  a  plague 

>P.   Landon,  "The  Opening  of  Tibet,"  25. 

'Lady  Jenkins,  "Sport  and  Travel  in  Both  Tibets,"  81. 

*B.  dp  Lacoste.  "Journey  Across  Mongolia,"  Geographical  Journal,  July, 
1910,   102.     R.   Lovett,   "James  Gilmour  of  Mongolia,"   129,  and  passim. 

*"In  the  best  quarter  of  the  town,  that  in  which  the  houses  are  two- 
storied,  the  heaped-up  filth  rises  to  the  first  floor  windows,  and  a  hole  in 
the  mess  has  to  be  kept  open  for  access  to  the  door.  It  must  be  seen  to 
be  believed.  In  the  middle  of  the  street,  between  the  two  banks  of  filth 
and  offal,  runs  a  stinking  channel,  which  thaws  daily.  In  it  horns  and 
bones  and  skulls  of  every  beast  eaten  or  not  eaten  by  the  Tibetans — there 
are  few  of  the  latter— lie  till  the  dogs  and  ravens  have  picked  them  clean 
enough  to  be  used  in  the  mortared  walls  and  thresholds.  ...  A  curdled 
and  foul  torrent  flows  in  the  daytime  through  the  market  place,  and  half- 
bred  yaks  shove  the  sore-eyed  and  mouth-ulcered  children  aside  to  drink 
It.  The  men  and  women,  clothes  and  faces  alike,  are  as  black  as  peat  walls 
that  form  a  background  to  every  scene.  They  have  never  washed  them- 
selves; they  never  intend  to  wash  themselves.  Ingrained  dirt  to  an  extent 
that  it  is  impossible  to  describe  reduces  what  would  otherwise  be  a  clear, 
good-complexioned  race  to  a  collection  of  foul  and  grotesque  negroes."— 
P.  Landon,  "The  Opening  of  Tibet,"  72. 

'F.  A.   Martin,  "Under  the  Absolute  Amir,"  43-45. 


I02  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

center,  with  its  ponds  of  stagnant  water,  and  its  in- 
habitants with  their  wan  and  ghastly  faces."  Seventy- 
five  per  cent  of  the  people  have  enormous  tumors  or 
goitres,  caused  by  the  poisonous  waters  they  drink. ^ 

Outside  of  the  great  cities  in  many  of  the  unoccupied 
fields,  for  example,  Arabia,  Somaliland  and  pagan  Africa, 
there  is  no  settled  government  and  no  dominant  authority, 
and  whole  regions  have  been  from  time  immemorial  in  a 
chronic  state  of  warfare  and  bloodshed.  Agriculture  has 
suffered  and  nomad  life  taken  its  place. 

Brigandage  is  common.  Blood  feuds  and  a  thirst  for 
vengeance  are  the  continual  curse  of  many  of  these 
countries.^ 

For  want  of  good  government,  there  is  often  great 
poverty.  According  to  Doughty  and  other  travelers, 
three-fourths  of  the  Bedouins  in  Arabia  suffer  continual 
famine.  The  women  suffer  most,  and  the  children  lan- 
guish away.  When  one  of  these  sons  of  the  desert  heard 
from  Doughty's  lips  of  a  land  where  "we  had  an  abund- 
ance of  the  blessings  of  Allah,  bread  and  clothing  and 
peace,  and,  how,  if  any  wanted,  the  law  succored  him — 
he  began  to  be  full  of  melancholy,  and  to  lament  the 
everlasting  infelicity  of  the  Arabs,  whose  lack  of  cloth- 
ing is  a  cause  to  them  of  many  diseases,  who  have  not 
daily  food  or  water  enough,  and  wandering  in  the  empty 
wilderness,  are  never  at  any  stay — and  these  miseries  to 
last  as  long  as  their  lives.  And  when  his  heart  was  full, 
he  cried  up  to  heaven,  'Have  mercy,  ah  Lord  God,  upon 
Thy  creature  which  Thou  createdst — pity  the  sighing  of 
the    poor,    the    hungry,    the    naked — have    mercy — have 

»B.  de  Lacoste,  "Around  Afghanistan,"  99.  Cf.  Sven  Hedin,  "Through 
Asia,"  Vol.  II,  712-713. 

*T.  L.  Penncll,  "Among  the  Wild  Tribes  of  the  Afghan  Frontier,"  18-30^ 
78-83. 


SOCIAL   CONDITIONS  IO3 

mercy  upon  them,  O  Allah.'  "'  The  unoccupied  mission 
fields  are  also  often  devastated  by  famine,  cholera  and 
plague,  the  natural  result  of  misgovernment,  ignorance 
and  lack  of  all  sanitary  precaution.-  We  pass  on  to 
another  disturbing  element  in  social  conditions. 

Among  the  social  evils  of  the  non-Christian  world,  Dr. 
Dennis  groups  together  with  poverty  and  lack  of  sani- 
tation, ignorance,  quackery,  witchcraft,  and  neglect  of 
the  poor  and  the  sick.^  These  are  so  closely  related  and 
are  in  a  sense  so  much  a  matter  of  cause  and  eflfect  that 
they  can  better  be  understood  by  a  series  of  illustrations 
than  by  further  detailed  classification.  Ignorance  and 
superstition  are  well-nigh  universal  in  all  of  the  unoccu- 
pied fields  of  the  world.  This  is  specially  true  of  Mon- 
golia and  Siberia,  Chinese  Turkistan,  Russian  Turkistan, 
Africa,  Afghanistan,  and  Tibet.  Remarkable  instances 
of  fanatical  superstition  are  related  by  travelers.  La- 
coste  tells  the  story,  for  example,  of  enormous  blocks  of 
stone  going  on  pilgrimage  to  Meshed  from  the  mountains 
of  Kutchan!  Every  Moslem  feels  a  holy  joy  in  helping 
them  on  their  pious  pilgrimage,  pushing,  pulling  or  drag- 
ging, little  by  little.  Sometimes  after  several  years'  travel- 
ing, these  granite  pilgrims  arrive  at  their  destination,  and 
such  faith  literally  removes  mountains.  *  In  Afghanistan, 
not  only  the  common  people  but  the  rulers  and  the  higher 
classes  have  a  firm  belief  in  charms  and  talismans.  The 
late  Amir  of  Afghanistan  attributed  his  escape  from  the 
bullet  of  a  soldier  who  tried  to  kill  him,  to  the  use  of  a 

*S.    M.  Zwemer,   "Arabia,  the  Cradle  of  Islam,"   157. 

•A.  B.  Wylde,  "Modern  Al.vs«.inia,"  los.  230.  "Journey  Through  Abyssinia," 
Geographical  Journal,  Vol.  XVI,  loi.  S.  M.  Zwemer,  "Arabia,  the  Cradle 
of  Islam,"  32-34. 

'J.   S.   Dennis,   "Christian  Missions  and  Social  Progress,"  Vol.   I,   182-252, 

*B.   de   Lacoste,   "Around  Afghanistan,"   29-30. 


104  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

charm  which  a  holy  man  had  given  him  when  he  was  a 
boy.  "At  first  I  did  not  believe  in  its  power  to  protect. 
I  therefore  tried  it  by  tying  it  around  the  neck  of  a  sheep, 
and  though  I  tried  hard  to  shoot  the  animal,  no  bullet 
injured  her."^  Count  de  Lesdain  gives  an  instance  of 
silly  superstition  in  Mongolia.^ 

The  use  of  amulets  is  almost  universal  not  only  in 
Moslem  Asia  and  Africa,  but  also  among  the  Buddhists 
and  Animists.^  The  people  continue  slaves  to  this  cus- 
tom long  after  the  entrance  of  western  civilization.  It 
is  the  everyday  religion  of  millions  of  women  and  chil- 
dren. The  most  common  things  used  for  amulets  among 
Moslems  are  a  small  Koran  suspended  in  a  silver  case; 
words  from  the  Koran  written  on  paper  and  carried  in 
a  leather  receptacle;  the  names  of  Allah  or  their  nu- 
merical value;  the  names  of  Mohammed  and  his  com- 
panions; precious  stones  with  or  without  inscriptions; 
beads ;  old  coins,  clay  images ;  the  teeth  of  wild  animals ; 
holy  earth  from  Mecca  or  Kerebela  in  the  shape  of  tiny 
bricks,  or  in  small  bags.  When  the  Kaaba  covering  at 
Mecca  is  taken  down  each  year  and  renewed,  the  old 
cloth  is  cut  up  into  small  pieces  and  sold  for  charms  to 
the  pilgrims.  The  Buddhists  manufacture  amulets  of 
similar  character  in  accordance  with  their  sacred  places 
and  objects. 

Amulets  and  charms  are  worn  not  only  by  the  people 
themselves  and  to  protect  their  children  from  the  evil 
eye,  but  are  put  over  the  doors  of  their  dwellings  and 

*T.  L.  Pennell,  "Among  the  Wild  Tribes  of  the  Afghan  Frontier,"  117. 

'Count  de  Lesdain,  "From  Peking  to  Sikkim,"  45.  Cf.  J.  Curtin,  "A  Jour- 
ney  in  Southern  Siberia,"  98,   104,  no,  112. 

•The  very  word  fetich  is  derived  from  the  Portuguese  word  "feitico," 
meaning  charm;  R.  E,  Bennett,  "At  the  Back  of  the  Black  Man's  Mind," 
88-92.  In  regard  to  Annam,  see  G.  M.  Vassal,  "On  and  Off  Duty  in 
Annam,"  89,  120,  128. 


J^Jt  •»"  i-^*  All  *^/^/<;^/ 


ILLISTRATIONS     OF     MKDKAL     CHARMS     AND     SUPERSTI- 
TIONS AMONdST  THE  PEOPLE  OF  KORDOFAN 

1.  Holy  Water  from  the  Prophet's  Well,  Zem  Zem,  at  Mecca.  Used 
in  small  quantities  as  a  specific  for  all  ills,  and  imported  in  metal  flasks 
by   pilgrims. 

2.  I^ve  charm  consisting  of  numerical   symbols  and  letters. 

3.  Charm  against  the  evil  fairy  or  witch  of  little  children,  Um  El 
Sibian.  consisting  of  the  names  of  God  from  the  Koran  and  numerical 
symbols. 

4.  A  medical  board  or  paddle  on  which  Koranic  verses  are.  inscribed 
by  Fikis  (holy  men).  The  ink  when  dry  is  washed  oflf  and  the  resulting 
fluid  prescribed  as  medicine  for  internal  administration  and  external  appli- 
cation in  cases  of  illness,  local  or  general.  This  course  of  holy  writ  in 
solution  constitutes,  and  is  termed,   El   Mahaia.  104 


SOCIAL    CONDITIONS  IO5 

even  on  camels,  donkeys,  horses,  fishing  boats ;  in  fact, 
everywhere,  to  ward  off  danger  or  death. 

According  to  the  principles  of  Islam,  only  verses  from 
the  Koran  should  be  used,  but  the  door  of  superstition 
once  being  set  ajar  by  Mohammed  himself,  as  we  know 
from  the  story  of  his  life,  it  is  now  wide  open.  The 
chapters  from  the  Koran  which  are  most  often  selected 
for  use  as  amulets  and  put  in  the  little  cases  seen  every- 
where are  Surahs  i,  vi,  xviii,  xxxvi,  xliv,  lv, 
Lxvii,  Lxxviii.^  There  are  five  verses  in  the  Koran 
called  the  verses  of  protection,  ''Ayat-el-Hifdh,"  which 
are  most  powerful  to  defend  from  evil.  They  read  as 
follows :  'The  preservation  of  heaven  and  earth  is  no 
burden  unto  Him" ;  "God  is  the  best  protector" ;  "They 
guard  him  by  the  command  of  God" ;  "We  guard  him 
from  every  stoned  devil" ;  "A  protection  from  every  re- 
bellious devil."  These  verses  are  written  with  great  care 
and  with  a  special  kind  of  ink  by  those  who  deal  in 
amulets,  and  are  then  sold  for  a  good  price  to  Moslem 
women  and  children.  The  ink  used  for  writing  amulets 
is  saffron  water,  rose  water,  orange  water,  the  juice  of 
onions,  water  from  the  sacred  well  of  Zem  Zem,  and 
sometimes  even  human  blood.  The  illustration  opposite 
shows  amulets  and  medicinal  charms  used  in  Kordofan, 
Africa.  All  over  pagan  Africa,  Moslem  charms  and 
superstitions  are  to-day  displacing  the  old  fetiches. 

In  the  midst  of  all  this  superstition,  native  quackery 
contributes  its  large  quota  to  the  misery  of  the  sick. 
Who  can  describe  the  terrors  of  quackery  in  Africa  or 
the  demoniacal  arts  of  the  witch  doctor  with  his  burning 
remedies  or  fiery  tonics,  or  the  art  of  the  sorcerer  in  the 

^Revue    du    Monde    Mussulman,     Vol.     VIII,    369-397.      Antoine     Cabaton, 
"Amulettcs  chez  Ics  peuples  Islamises." 


I06  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

Pacific  Islands?^  Everywhere  the  visit  of  a  white  trav- 
eler, man  or  woman,  is  the  signal  for  poor  neglected  sick 
to  flock  together  in  the  hope  of  relief.^  The  native  medi- 
cal profession  in  Indo-China,  Mongolia  and  Tibet  is  based 
on  Chinese  practice  and  is  merely  a  matter  of  supersti- 
tion and  ignorant  tradition ;  yet  the  people  are  so  willing 
to  receive  the  help  of  Western  science  that  Captain  Wal- 
ton, the  surgeon  who  accompanied  the  expedition  of 
Younghusband,  reports  no  less  than  six  hundred  cases  of 
harelip  and  cataract  treated  by  him  alone  during  his 
brief  visit.^ 

The  sick,  throughout  all  the  unoccupied  fields  of  the 
world,  like  the  woman  in  the  Gospel,  have  ''suffered  many 
things  from  many  physicians."  No  wonder  they  are  in 
desperate  straits  and  anxious  for  relief.  Doughty  tells 
how,  among  the  Bedouins,  they  give  the  sick  to  eat  of 
the  carrion  eagle  and  even  seethe  asses'  dung  for  a  po- 
tion. Kei,  or  actual  cautery,  is  a  favorite  cure  for  all  sorts 
of  diseases ;  so  also  is  khelal,  or  perforating  the  skin  sur- 
face with  a  red-hot  iron  and  then  passing  a  thread  through 
the  hole  to  facilitate  suppuration.  There  is  scarcely  one 
Arab,  man  or  woman,  in  a  hundred  who  has  not  some 
te'-marks;  even  infants  are  burned  most  cruelly  in  this 
way  to  relieve  diseases  of  childhood.  Where  kei  fails, 
they  use  words  written  on  paper  either  from  the  Koran, 
or,  by  law  of  contraries,  words  of  evil,  sinister  import. 
These  the  patient  "takes"  either  by  swallowing  them, 
paper  and  all,  or  by  drinking  the  ink-water  in  which  the 
writing  is  washed  off. 


*J.  S.  Dennis,  "Christian  Missions  and  Social  Progress,"  Vol.  I,  i93-»97- 
2H.  G.  C.  Swayne,  "Seventeen  Trips  through  Somaliland,"  261. 
•P.  Landon,  "The  Opening  of  Tibet,"  Appendix,  47o-47i-    Cf.  Sven  Hedin, 
'Through  Asia,"  Vol.  I,  473. 


SOCIAL   CONDITIONS  IO7 

Blood-letting  is  also  a  common  remedy  for  many 
troubles.  The  Arab  barber  is  at  once  a  phlebotomist, 
cauterizer  and  dentist.  His  implements — one  can  hardly 
call  them  instruments — are  very  crude  and  he  uses  them 
with  some  skill  but  without  any  mercy.  Going  to  the  proper 
place  in  any  large  Arab  town,  you  may  always  see  a 
row  of  men  squatting  down  with  bent  back  to  be  bled ; 
cupping  and  scarifying  are  the  two  methods  most  in 
vog^ie,  although  some  are  quite  clever  in  opening  a  vein. 
The  science  of  medicine  in  the  towns  is  not  much  in  ad- 
vance of  that  of  the  desert — more  book-talk  but  even  less 
natural  intelligence.  A  disease  to  be  at  all  respectable 
must  be  connected  with  one  of  the  four  temperaments 
or  "humors  of  Hippocrates".^  Conditions  arc  similar 
in  Bokhara  and  Khorasan,  Persia.  Dr.  Pennell  speaks 
of  the  ignorance  of  native  medical  practice  in  Afghanis- 
tan and  the  needless  cruelty  of  their  remedies  and  surgery. 
Dentistry  is  entrusted  to  the  village  blacksmith,  *'who  has 
a  ponderous  pair  of  forceps,  a  foot  and  a  half  long,  hung 
up  in  his  shop  for  the  purpose."^  The  results  are  often 
disastrous. 

Of  surgery  and  midwifery,  the  people  in  the  dark  lands 
of  Asia  and  of  Africa  are,  as  a  rule,  totally  ignorant, 
and  if  their  medical  treatment  is  ridiculous,  their  surgery 
is  piteously  cruel,  although  perhaps  never  intentionally 
so.  In  eastern  Arabia,  blind  women  are  preferred  as 
midwivcs,  and  rock  salt  is  used  against  puerpural  hem- 
morrhagc.  Gunshot  wounds  are  treated  by  a  poultice 
of  dates,  onions  and  tamarind,  and  the  accident  is  guarded 
against  in  future  by  wearing  a  "lead  amulet."^     Similar 


*S.  M.  Zwemer,  "Arabia,  the  Cradle  of  Islam,"  aSo-iSi. 

'H.  L.  Pcnncll,  ".■\mong  the  Wild  Tribes  of  the  Afghan  Frontier,"  10-49. 

'5-  M.  Zwcraer.  "Arabia,  the  Cradle  of  Islam,"  ^83. 


I08  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

instances  of  cruel  ignorance  might  be  given  in  regard  to 
Afghanistan,  Baluchistan,  Tibet,  Annani  and  Somaliland.* 

Barbarous  punishments,  torture,  the  maltreatment  of 
the  aged  or  prisoners  and  cannibalism  are  also  evidences 
that  "the  dark  places  of  the  earth  are  full  of  the  habita- 
tions of  cruelty."  Cannibalism  is  still  prevalent  in  Papua 
and  elsewhere  in  the  South  Seas.^  The  expedition  of 
Mr.  Walker  was  partly  a  punitive  one  against  the  Dobo- 
dura  tribe,  who  had  been  raiding  and  slaughtering  a  tribe 
on  the  coast  with  no  other  apparent  reason  than  to  fill 
their  own  cooking-pots.^  He  describes  the  horrors  of 
cannibalism,  and  speaks  of  seeing,  on  a  raised  platform, 
at  Kanau,  rows  of  human  skulls  and  quantities  of  bones, 
the  remnants  of  a  gruesome  cannibal  feast.  The  infernal 
tortures  perpetrated  in  these  cannibal  raids  are  too  hor- 
rible for  description,  and  these  are  not  tales  told  of  the 
dark  past  but  things  that  take  place  to-day.* 

One  of  the  most  degraded  tribes  of  the  human  family, 
still  largely  unreached  by  missionary  effort,  is  that  of 
the  head-hunting  Dayaks  of  Borneo.^     The  custom  of 

^H.  L.  Pennell,  "Among  the  Wild  Tribes  of  the  Afghan  Frontier,"  190, 
193.  A.  H.  S.  Lander,  "In  the  Forbidden  Land,"  Vol.  I,  53,  290-296,  300-303. 
H.  G.  C.  Swayne,   "Seventeen  Trips  through  Somaliland,"  41-43,  219,  234. 

*"The  barquentine  Mary  Winkelman,  which  has  arrived  from  Tonga 
Islands,  reports  that  the  Rev,  Horatio  Hopkins  and  the  Rev.  Hector 
McPherson,  Presbyterian  missionaries,  have  been  eaten  by  cannibals  on 
Savage  Island.  The  report  adds  that  there  is  a  revival  of  ancient  religious 
customs  in  the  Tonga,  Society,  Solomon  and  Cook  groups,  the  natives 
feasting  on  human  flesh." — London  Times,  May  6,  1910. 

'H.  W.  Walker,   "Wanderings  Among  South   Sea  Savages,"    108. 

*Ibid.,  120,  130,  159.  "Every  skull  had  a  large  hole  punched  in  the 
side.  .  .  .  When  the  enemy  is  captured,  they  slowly  torture  him  to 
death,  practically  eating  him  alive.  When  he  is  almost  dead  they  make  a 
hole  in  the  side  of  the  head  and  scoop  out  the  brains  with  a  wooden 
spoon."— H.  W.  Walker,  "Wanderings  Among  South  Sea  Savages,"  118, 
"In  our  party  were  nine  men  In  chains  about  to  be  tried  for  eating  a 
mail-boy.  I  was  told  they  would  get  about  a  year  apiece," — K.  Mackay, 
"Across  Papua,"  92-103,  108. 

'H.  W.  Walker,  "Wanderings  Among  South  Sea  Savages,"  188,  195-197. 


SOCIAL   CONDITIONS  lOQ 

head-hunting  is  described  as  follows :  "A  Dayak  maiden 
thinks  as  much  of  heads  as  a  white  girl  would  of  jewelry. 
.  .  .  The  heads  are  handed  down  from  father  to  son,  and 
the  rank  of  the  Dayak  is  determined  by  the  number  of 
heads  he  or  his  ancestors  have  collected."  The  women 
incite  the  men  to  go  on  these  head-hunting  expeditions, 
and  Mr.  Walker  tells  of  a  young  man  named  Hathnaveng, 
who  had  been  persuaded  by  the  missionaries  to  give  up 
the  barbarous  custom  of  head-hunting.  The  maiden  to 
whom  he  was  engaged,  however,  disdained  his  offer  of 
marriage,  until,  goaded  by  her  taunts,  he  brought  the 
usual  tribute.  To  her  horror,  she  saw  that  they  were  the 
heads  of  her  own  father,  her  mother,  her  brother  and  a 
rival.  Hathnaveng  was  seized,  put  in  a  bamboo  cage  by 
the  natives  and  starved  to  death. ^ 

In  Sierra  Leone,  a  tribe  known  as  the  Bcli  people, 
boasts  that  there  is  no  person  in  Beli,  over  three  years 
of  age,  who  has  not  eaten  human  flesh.  The  slaves  who 
run  away,  if  re-caught  are  killed  and  eaten.^ 

Those  people  who  think  of  the  natives  of  the  tropic 
islands  or  of  Africa  as  being  the  children  of  nature,  living 
happy  in  their  virgin  forests  and  untainted  by  the  vices 
of  our  civilization,  are  ignorant  of  real  conditions.  "As 
I  lay  in  my  hammock  that  night,"  says  Kenneth  Mackay, 
"one  white  man  among  hundreds  of  black  ones,  the  other 
side  of  the  picture  rose  before  me.  How  these  un- 
doubtedly charming  people  had  till  quite  recently  eaten 

'H.  VV.  Walker,  "Wanderings  Among  South   Sea  Savages,"  200,  201. 

•"Wanderings  in  the  Hinterland  of  Sierra  Leone."  T.  J.  Alldndge,  Geo- 
graphical Jourral,  1904.  On  cannibalism  in  the  Congo  region,  see  E.  Tor- 
day,  "Land  and  Peoples  of  the  Kasai  Basin,"  Geographical  Journal,  July, 
1910.  36.  He  writes:  "The  Bankutu  are  great  cannibals  as  far  as  the  male 
members  of  the  tribe  are  concerned,  and  the  victims  are  always  slaves;  in 
fact,  all  slaves  are  ultimately  eaten,  since  it  is  believed  that  if  a  slave  weie 
buried,  his  ghost  would  kill  his  master." 


no  TPIE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

their  prisoners,  cooking  them  alive  by  holding  them  over 
a  slow  fire,  and  how  in  proof  thereof  some  of  them  had 
been  kind  enough  to  show  me  a  charred  skull,  and  while 
apologizing  for  having  only  one,  to  explain  that  there 
were  quite  a  lot  at  the  next  village.  .  .  I  thanked  God  that 
undeveloped  peoples,  so  tersely  and  truly  described  by 
Kipling  as  'half  devil,  half  child',  never  seem  to  realize 
their  strength  nor  our  too  frequent  weakness."^ 

Cruelty  to  the  living  we  regret  to  say  seems  to  be 
the  rule  in  many  of  the  lands  which  have  not  yet  received 
the  Gospel.  Frank  A.  Martin,  who  spent  eight  years  as 
engineer  at  Kabul  (1890-1898),  and  was  for  the  greater 
part  of  that  time  the  only  Englishman  in  the  capital,  de- 
votes an  entire  chapter  of  his  book  to  the  tortures  and 
methods  of  execution  in  vogue,  describing  horrors 
that  are  past  belief,  and  yet  corroborated  by  other 
writers.^  A  man  who  was  accused  of  shooting  a  slave 
boy  so  enraged  the  Amir  that  he  gave  orders  for  him  to 
be  tied  by  his  hair  to  the  bough  of  a  tree  in  the  palace 
garden  and  so  many  square  inches  of  skin  taken  off  his 
body  daily  until  he  confessed.  The  man  died  on  the 
third  day.^  The  torture  of  the  fanah  is  described  as  more 
cruel  than  anything  we  read  of  in  the  Spanish  Inquisi- 
tion.* "Another  common  punishment  is  that  of  blinding 
people.  This  is  the  usual  punishment  of  those  who  try 
to  escape  from  prison  or  from  the  country, — almost 
synonymous  terms.  The  manner  of  doing  this  is  to  lance 
the  pupils  of  the  eyes,  and  then  put  in  a  drop  of  nitric 
acid  and,  to  guarantee  no  sight  being  left,  quicklime  is 

^K.  Mackay,  "Across  Papua,"  97. 

'F.  A.  Martin,  "Under  the  Absolute  Amir,"  64,  109,  145,  153,  157,  167,  374, 
etc.    Cf.  E.  and  A.  Thornton,  A.  Hamilton  and  others. 
•F.  A.  Martin,  "Under  the  Absolute  Amir,"  158. 
•Ibid,  153.  154. 


SOCIAL   CONDITIONS  III 

afterwards  added.  The  agony  endured  must  be  fright- 
ful, and  in  one  case  when  fifteen  men  were  blinded  to- 
gether, they  were  seen  on  the  third  day  all  chained  one 
to  the  other,  sitting  in  a  row  on  the  ground.  .  .  .  Three 
of  them  were  lying  dead  still  chained  to  the  living,  and 
some  of  the  living  were  lying  unconscious,  while  the 
others  were  moaning  and  rocking  themselves  backwards 
and  forwards.* 

In  Afghanistan  and  other  IMoslem  lands,  the  spy  sys- 
tem, with  all  its  terrors,  prevails.  Prisons  in  Tibet  and 
Afghanistan  are  as  bad  as  the  infamous  ones  of  Mo- 
rocco.'  In  underground  holes,  men  are  imprisoned  for 
life  and  live  and  die  there  in  horrible  stench  and  dark- 
ness. "Most  of  the  men  imprisoned  there  soon  end  their 
days  by  dashing  themselves  against  the  rock  until  they 
become  unconscious  and  die,  for  the  solitude  and  horror 
of  it  all  drives  them  mad."^  'Tf  the  truth  about  the  Kabul 
prisons  were  generally  known,  other  countries  would 
probably  unite  in  insisting  that  such  barbarity  should  be 
stopped."*  Contrast  with  the  conditions  of  prisons  in 
these  lands  the  "separate  system  in  our  American  prisons" 
abandoned  as  unnecessarily  severe  which  "calls  for  a 
series  of  cells  in  which  the  prisoners  live  in  isolation  from 
each  other,  but  not  excluded  from  a  degree  of  companion- 
ship with  warden,  guards,  physicians,  teachers,  chaplain 

^F.  A.  Martin.  "Under  the  Absolute  Amir,"  i66.  167.  See  also  G.  P.  Tate, 
"The  Frontiers  of  Baluchistan,"  7,  104,  and  E.  and  A.  Thornton,  "Leaves 
from  an  Afghan  Scrapbook,"  10,  19,  24,  54,  120,  182,  183,  206.  "A  few  yards 
further  along  we  came  to  a  second  cage,  placed  on  the  left  side  of  the 
road  by  the  present  Amir.  After  being  suspended  in  this  cage  the  men 
lived  for  a  week,  going  quite  mad,  and  fighting  together.  Even  now  their 
whitened  bones  may  be  seen,  and  part  of  an  old  sheepskin  coat  hangs  out 
between  the  bars,  waving  mournfully."— E.  and  A.  Thornton,  "Leaves  from 
an  Afghan   Scrapbook,"    198. 

»F.  A.   Martin,  "Under  the  Absolute  Amir,"   149,  302-303. 

'Ibid..  150. 

*IbJd.,  303. 


112  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

and  authorized  visitors  from  the  outside  world.  There 
IS  a  bed  for  sleep,  a  table  for  eating  and  writing,  a  bench 
for  work,  and  outside  a  little  space  for  exercise  in  sun- 
shine and  fresh  air."^ 

Not  only  are  the  punishments  inflicted  by  the  Tibetans 
upon  prisoners  during  life  time  abominably  cruel  and 
inhuman,^  but  barbarism  is  perpetrated  on  the  dead.^ 
A  large  majority  of  all  the  people  who  die  in  Tibet 
are  literally  hacked  to  pieces  and  fed  to  pigs  and  vul- 
tures.* "The  most  ragged  and  disreputable  quarter  in 
all  Lhasa,"  Landon  states,  "is  that  occupied  by  the  famous 
tribe  of  Ragyabas,  or  beggar-scavengers.  These  men 
are  also  the  breakers-up  of  the  dead.  It  is  difficult  to 
imagine  a  more  repulsive  occupation,  a  more  brutalized 
type  of  humanity,  and,  above  all,  a  more  abominable  and 
foul  sort  of  hovel  than  those  that  are  characteristic  of 
these  men.  Filthy  in  appearance,  half-naked,  half-clothed 
in  obscene  rags,  these  nasty  folk  live  in  houses  which  a 
respectable  pig  would  refuse  to  occupy.  .  .  .  These  men 
exact  high  fees  for  disposing  ceremoniously  of  dead 
bodies.  The  limbs  and  trunk  of  the  deceased  persons 
are  hacked  apart  and  exposed  on  low,  flat  stones  until 

*C.  R.  Henderson,  "Introduction  to  the  Study  of  the  Dependents,  De- 
fectives, Delinquents,"  281. 

'P.  Landon,  "The  Opening  of  Tibet,"  468-469.  A.  H.  S.  Landor,  "In 
the  Forbidden  Land,"  Vol.  II,  123,  and  his  own  terrible  experiences,  Vol. 
II,  102-168. 

^A.  H.  S.  Landor,  "In  the  Forbidden  Land,"  Vol,  II,  69-72.  Lady  Jen- 
kins, "Sport  and  Travel  in  Both  Tibets,"  27.  In  Papua  also  there  are 
many  barbarous  customs  connected  with  the  disposal  of  the  dead.  The 
body  is  dried  over  a  fire  and  the  drippings  are  saved.  "This  liquid  is  par- 
taken of  by  the  wife  of  the  dead  man  as  an  evidence  of  her  fidelity  to  him." 
In  other  cases  dead  children  are  reduced  to  skeletons  and  then  placed  in 
hollow  bamboos,  or  the  skull  of  the  dead  is  removed  and  placed  within  a 
carved  wooden  head  as  a  sacred  relic.  At  Geelfink  Bay  the  mothers  wear 
the  bones  of  their  dead  children  as  necklaces. — "Notes  on  Dutch  New 
Guinea,"   by  Thos.   Barbour,  National  Geographic  Magazine,   August,   1908. 

<A.  H.  S.  Landor,  "In  the  Forbidden  Land,"  Vol.  II,  6973. 


0  5  3  100  200 

Protestant  Miacion  Stations. 


0-''     Gn-i-nwicli 


2-.oi!ytT-,lll\iU  .,.,  ^  ""^^T  provinces  and  two  minor  districts,  has  an  area  of 
arc^HitcTnfo  1?  b  li''  'r''",-'"'"'"  S^l""''*^*^^'  •-><  4.500.000.  ninety  per  cent,  of  whom 
n  ij    66;  «'thout   religious   liberty   or   personal    freedom.      (See    pages   4     6 


SOCIAL   CONDITIONS  II3 

they  are  consumed  by  the  dogs,  pig^s  and  vultures  with 
which  Lliasa  swarms."^  After  death,  those  who  are  im- 
penitent may  naturally  look  for  something  yet  more  ter- 
rible, for  fear  of  which  the  Tibetans  are  all  their  life 
time  subject  to  the  horrible  bondage  of  their  priesthood. 
"No  vision  of  hell,"  says  Landon,  concerning  the  temple 
at  Gyantse  and  its  carvings,  "was  ever  drawn  with  such 
amazing  delicacy  and  hideous  ingenuity  as  arc  the  quaint 
tortures  of  the  danmed  in  this  representation  of  the 
Buddhist  Sheol."^  Where  there  is  cruelty,  men's  hearts 
grow  pitiless,  and  their  creed  is  patterned  after  their 
conduct. 

Almost  universal  immorality  and  the  consequent  degra- 
dation of  womanhood  and  childhood  are  still  darker 
shadows  in  the  true  picture  of  the  non-Christian  world 
especially  the  unoccupied  fields.  The  testimony  of  all  trav- 
elers agrees  regarding  the  moral  degradation  of  the  Mos- 
lem and  pagan  populations  of  Central  Asia  and  Africa.^ 
In  Afghanistan,  immorality  of  the  most  debasing  type 
is  common  even  at  court  and  among  the  Moslem  clergy. 
The  degradation  of  womanhood  is  complete,  from  the 
residents  of  the  palace  to  the  dancing  girls  of  the  street. 
Among  the  Chantos  of  Eastern  Turkistan,  social  and 
moral  conditions  are  very  low.  "Flagrant  immorality  is 
well-nigh  universal.     Khotan  and  Keriya  have  the  repu- 


*P.  Landon,  "The  Opening  of  Tibet,"  335- 

»Ibid.  103. 

*A.  Herbert,  "Two  Dianas  in  Somaliland."  James  L.  Barton  and  others, 
"The  Mohammedan  World  of  To-day,"  81,  138,  139,  210,  etc.  J.  Richter, 
"History  of  Protestant  Missions  in  the  Near  East,"  27.  F.  A.  Martin, 
"Under  the  Absolute  Amir,"  270,  287.  S.  C.  Rijnhart,  "With  the  Tibetans 
in  Tent  and  Temple,"  142,  215.  J.  Curtin,  "A  Journey  in  Southern  Siberia," 
81,  90.  Sven  Hedin,  "Through  Asia,"  Vol.  I,  79;  Vol.  II,  738.  "In  some 
parts  of  Africa  the  level  of  the  unconscious  brute  is  reached."— H.  L. 
Tangye,  "In  the  Torrid  Sudan,"  234. 


114  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

tation  of  being  the  most  immoral  cities  of  Asia."^  A  so- 
called  respectable  woman  may  have  three  or  four  hus- 
bands in  a  year,  because  of  divorce  and  temporary  legal 
marriages.^  Among  the  Khirghiz  women,  and  the  no- 
mads of  Central  Asia  in  general,  better  conditions  pre- 
vail;  but  in  Russian  Turkistan  and  Bokhara,  the  usual 
results  of  the  Moslem  social  system,  we  are  sorry  to 
record,  are  everywhere  in  evidence. 

The  terrible  cry  of  the  outcast  children  of  Kashgar, 
voiced  recently  by  a  converted  Moslem  from  Central  Asia, 
is  only  typical  of  similar  needs  and  sorrows  in  all  the 
unoccupied  fields  of  the  world.  'These  homeless  and 
deserted  children  live  in  the  burial-ground,  outside  of 
town;  near  the  dead  they  find  that  refuge  which  the 
living  deny  them.  .  .  .  Almost  naked,  covered  only  with 
a  few  old  rags,  barefooted  and  bareheaded,  they  are  ex- 
posed to  the  cold  which  makes  them  freeze,  their  hunger 
becomes  insupportable,  sleep  comes  and  with  it  the  angel 
of  death  whose  kiss  releases  them  from  all  the  misery 
of  earth-life."3 

The  social  condition  of  the  Chinese  Moslems  in 
Kashgar  is  worse  than  that  of  Chinese  Confucianists. 
Mr.  George  Hunter  states  that  the  marriage  tie  is  very 
loose,  many  having  had  as  many  as  a  hundred  wives, 
and  Mr.  Broomhall  adds,  "Such  a  condition  in  China 
would  be  practically  impossible,  and  in  this  the  restrain- 
ing influence  of  Confucian  ethics  is  clearly  seen."* 

The  very  sanctuaries  of  religion,  the  pilgrim  centers 

*E.  Huntington,  "The  Pulse  of  Asia,"  231. 

2Ibid. 

•"The  Cry  of  the  Children  of  Kashgar,"  Missionary  Review  of  the  World, 
July,  1910,  512-515. 

*M.  Broomhall,  "Islam  in  China."  Cf.  Sven  Hedin,  "Through  Asia," 
Vol.  II.  1085. 


SOCIAL    CONDITIONS  II5 

in  the  unoccupied  lands,  are  centers  of  immorality.  This 
is  true  of  Meshed,  Kerbela,  Lhasa,  Medina  and  Mecca. 
"The  Meccans  appeared  to  me  distinguished,"  says  Bur- 
ton, "even  in  this  foul-mouthed  East,  by  the  superior 
licentiousness  of  their  language.  Abuse  was  bad  enough 
in  the  streets,  but  in  the  house  it  becomes  intolerable.''^ 
Temporary»marriages,  which  are  a  mere  cloak  for  open 
prostitution,  are  common  in  Mecca  and  arc,  indeed,  one 
of  the  chief  means  of  livelihood  for  the  natives.^  Con- 
cubinage and  divorce  are  more  universal  than  in  other 
parts  of  the  Moslem  world  ;^  unnatural  vices  are  prac- 
ticed in  the  Sacred  Mosque  itself,*  and  the  suburbs  of 
the  city  are  the  scenes  of  nightly  carnivals  of  iniquity, 
especially  after  the  pilgrims  have  left  and  the  natives 
are  rich  with  the  fresh  spoils  of  the  traffic/'* 

In  the  midst  of  such  conditions,  which  have  continued 
for  centuries  in  the  lands  under  consideration,  it  is  not 
surprising  to  find  the  sad  condition  of  womanhood  a  con- 
spicuous proof  of  the  hopelessness  of  the  ethnic  religions. 
Throughout  all  of  the  unoccupied  mission  fields,  woman 
is  still  regarded  "as  a  scandal  and  a  slave,  a  drudge  and 
a  disgrace,  a  temptation  and  a  terror,  a  blemish  and  a 
burden — at  once  the  touchstone  and  stumbling-block  of 
human  systems,  the  sign  and  shame  of  the  non-Christian 
world."  To  quote  again  from  Dr.  Dennis,  "The  status 
of  woman  outside  of  Christendom  may  be  indicated  by 
the  estimate  put  upon  her,  by  the  opportunity  given  her, 
by  the  function  assigned  her,  by  the  privilege  accorded 


'Burton,  quoted  in  S.  M.  Zwemcr's  "Arabia,  the  Cradle  of  Islam,"  41. 
*Snouck  Hurgronjc,   "Mekka,"   V'jl.   II,  5, 
'Ibid.,   102. 
*Ibid.,   n. 
•Ibid.,  61-64- 


Il6  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

her,  and  by  the  service  expected  of  her."^  This  indict- 
ment may  have  its  striking  exceptions  among  certain 
tribes  of  nomads  or  in  individual  instances,  and  must  be 
quaHfied  as  regards  Tibet,  but  it  is  undoubtedly  true  of 
the  vast  majority  of  all  the  women  who  live  in  the  lands 
mentioned  in  this  book. 

It  is  the  testimony  of  Dr.  Karl  W.  Kumm,  that  the 
women  in  the  Sudan,  as  long  as  they  are  pagan,  are  more 
or  less  free  and  are  only  treated  badly  if  they  are  the 
weaker  in  the  incessant  domestic  quarrels  of  pagan  life. 
As  soon  as  the  men  become  Mohammedans,  however,  he 
says,  the  women  become  slaves  and  worse  than  slaves. 
"Under  Islam,  in  Darkest  Africa,  woman  is  still  a  chattel 
in  her  husband's  hands,  who  has  the  authority  to  punish 
for  wrongdoing  by  beating,  stoning  or  imprisonment  un- 
til death."^ 

Of  Somaliland,  we  read  that,  "instead  of  a  system  of 
old-age  pensions  for  women,  they  are  employed  as  beasts 
of  burden  to  carry  loads  of  faggots  and  such  like.  Child- 
bearing  and  hard  work  are  the  only  things  expected  of 
them."3 

The  condition  of  womanhood  in  Darkest  Asia  is  no 
better  than  in  Africa.  Even  in  Annam,  where  her  con- 
dition is  far  superior  to  that  in  Moslem  Asia,  or  in  Tibet, 
most  of  them  live  in  dense  ignorance  and  superstition, 
suffer  the  horrors  of  polygamy  or  polyandry  and  in  the 
hour  of  their  greatest  need  are  subjected  to  ignorant 
cruelties  and  malpractice.*     In  Baluchistan,  women  are 


*J.  S.  Dennis,  "Christian  Missions  and  Social  Progress,"  Vol.  I,   104. 

'K.  W.  Kumm,  "Women  in  the  Sudan."  Pamphlet,  Sudan  United  Mis- 
sion. 

•J.  W.  Jennings,  "With  the  Abyssinians  in  Somaliland,"  38.  See  also 
H.  G.  C,  Swayne,  "Seventeen  Trips  through  Somaliland,"  12. 

*G.  M.  Vassal,  "On  and  Off  Duty  in  Annam,"  92,  iii,  130,  132-147. 


SOCIAL   CONDITIONS  117 

given  all  the  degrading  ^vo^k  to  do  and  bear  all  the 
heavy  burdens,  while  the  men  sit  in  idleness.  "Occa- 
sionally, one  may  even  see  a  woman  harnessed  with  a 
donkey  to  a  plow."^  Nothing  sets  forth  the  general  deg- 
radation of  womanhood  in  Afghanistan  and  Baluchistan 
more  convincingly  and  more  terribly  than  the  following 
paragraphs  taken  from  the  Government  Census  Report.^ 
"Throughout  the  province,  more  especially  among  the 
Afghans  and  the  Braliuis,^  the  position  of  women  is  one 
of  extreme  degradation.  She  is  not  only  a  mere  house- 
hold drudge,  but  she  is  the  slave  of  man  in  all  his  needs, 
and  her  life  is  one  of  continual  and  abject  toil. 

"No  sooner  is  a  girl  fit  for  work  than  her  parents  send 
her  to  tend  the  cattle,  and  she  is  compelled  to  take  her 
part  in  all  the  ordinary  household  duties.  Owing  to 
the  system  of  wahcar*  in  vogue  among  the  Afghans, 
a  girl,  as  soon  as  she  reaches  nubile  age,  is,  for  all  practi- 
cal purposes,  put  up  for  auction  sale  to  the  highest  bid- 
der. Her  father  discourses  on  her  merits  as  a  beauty 
or  as  a  housekeeper  in  the  public  meeting-places,  and  in- 
vites offers  from  those  who  are  in  want  of  a  wife.  Even 
the  more  wealthy  and  more  respectable  Afghans  are  not 
above  this  system  of  thus  lauding  the  human  wares  which 
they  have  for  sale.  The  betrothal  of  girls  who  are  not 
yet  born  is  frequent,  and  a  promise  of  a  girl  thus  made 
is  considered  particularly  binding.  It  is  also  usual  for 
an  award  of  compensation  for  blood  to  be  paid  in  the 
shape  of  girls,  some  of  whom  are  living  whilst  others 
are  not  yet  born. 

*.\.   D.   Dixey,  "Baluchistan,"  Church  Missionary  Rn'iew,  December,   1908. 

'Quoted  by  A.  D.  Dixey,  "Baluchistan,"  Church  Missionary  Rniew, 
December,  1908.  Cf.  also  G.  P.  Tate,  "The  Frontiers  of  Baluchistan," 
234,  235. 

•One  of  the  largest   non-Afghan  tribes   in  the  country. 

'Marriage  custom  in  regard  to  dowry. 


Il8  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

"Hence  it  happens  that  among  Afghans  polygamy  is 
only  limited  by  the  purchasing  power  of  the  man,  and  a 
wife  is  looked  on  as  a  better  investment  than  cattle,  for 
in  a  country  where  drought  and  scarcity  are  continually 
present,  the  risk  of  loss  of  animals  is  great,  whilst  the 
offspring  of  a  woman,  if  a  girl,  will  assuredly  fetch  a 
high  price." 

The  women  of  Tibet  do  not  suffer  these  "horrors  of 
Islam,"  but  their  condition  is  no  less  pitiful.  "The 
women  of  Tibet,"  says  James  Douglas,  "by  the  place 
of  authority  which  they  occupy,  and  the  mental  functions 
which  they  discharge,  furnish  a  problem  which  thus 
far  has  baffled  the  reflective  powers  of  the  foreigner, 
be  he  Chinese  or  European.  The  Chinese,  the  more  they 
see  of  the  phenomenon,  the  wider  they  open  their  eyes 
in  wonder;  and  the  European  traveler  is  equally  at  his 
wits*  end  for  an  explanation.  The  Tibetan  woman  is  a 
coin  of  a  double  stamp — on  one  side  she  is  a  drudge, 
on  the  other  a  queen.  Tasks  far  fitter  for  masculine  than 
feminine  shoulders  are  hers,  which  the  ignoble  males 
would  deem  it  a  degradation  to  perform,  such  as  the 
carrying  of  water  from  rivers  up  to  homes  built  on  giddy 
heights ;  and  yet,  while  the  women  of  Tibet  fill  the  place 
of  drudge,  they  also  sit  on  the  throne  of  power.  No  good 
boy  was  ever  more  systematically  subject  to  his  mother, 
or  dependent  at  every  turn  on  her  leave,  than  is  the 
Tibetan  husband  on  his  wife.  He  cannot  buy,  and  cer- 
tainly he  will  not  sell,  save  as  his  wife  directs  or  permits. 
If  the  wife  is  from  home,  the  husband  will  mention  it, 
to  any  one  wishing  to  deal  with  him,  as  the  reason  why 
necessarily  all  business  in  his  case  is  at  a  standstill."^ 
Yet,  in  spite  of  this  comparatively  high  social  position, 

^Missionary  Review  of  the  World,  June,  1894,  410. 


SOCIAL   CONDITIONS  II9 

ignorance,  superstition,  and  uncleanly  habits  seem 
to  have  divested  their  home  life,  as  well  as  their  persons 
of  most  of  the  attractions  of  womanhood.  **It  cannot 
be  claimed  that  Tibetan  ladies  look  beautiful,"  says  Lan- 
don.  "It  is,  of  course,  difficult  to  say  what  the  effect 
would  be  if  some  of  them  were  thoroughly  washed.  As 
it  is,  they  exist  from  the  cradle  (or  what  corresponds 
to  it),  to  the  stone  slab  on  which  their  dead  bodies  are 
hacked  to  pieces  without  a  bath  or  even  a  partial  cleans- 
ing of  any  kind.*  Immorality  is  common.-  While 
polygamy,  as  well  as  polyandry,  has  destroyed  the 
sacredness  of  marriage.^ 

Summing  up  the  present  social  conditions  in  the  areas 
outside  of  missionary  effort,  it  is  evident  that  the  uni- 
versal ignorance,  the  appalling  illiteracy,  the  degrading 
superstitions,  the  unspeakable  immoralities,  the  hideous 
persecutions  and  tortures  prevalent  in  all  these  lands  and 
the  pitiful  condition  of  womanhood  and  childhood  are 
the  strongest  possible  plea  for  Christian  missions. 

The  Gospel  is  the  only  hope  for  the  social  uplift  of  the 
world,  and  since  Christian  missions  have  always  been  prior 
to  real  and  lasting  social  progress  and  have  shown  their 
power  for  nineteen  centuries  in  every  part  of  the  world, 
it  is  evident  that  the  fields  at  present  unoccupied  have 
a  claim  on  the  Gospel.     It  is  not  right,  since  we  believe 


»P.  Landon,  "The  Opening  of  Tibet,"  63.  A.  H.  S.  Landor,  "In  the 
Forbidden  Land,"  Vol.  I,  24s.  289. 

'A.  H.  S.  Landor,  "In  the  Forbidden  Land,"  Vol.  II,  58,  61,  63. 

*"A  Tibetan  girl  on  marrying  does  not  enter  into  a  nuptial  tie  with  an 
individual  but  with  all  his  family.  When  the  bridegroom  has  brothers, 
they  are  regarded  as  their  brother's  wife's  husbands  and  they  all  live  with 
her  as  well  as  with  her  sisters  if  she  has  any."  A.  H.  S.  Landor,  "In  the 
Forbidden  Land,"  63.  Polygamy  is  common  among  the  ruling  class  and 
the  wealthy.  Ibid.  68.  Cf.  the  testimony  of  Dr.  Susie  Rijnhart,  "With  the 
Tibetans  in  Tent  and  Temple.  '  ^15,  221,  333. 


I20  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION   FIELDS 

in  the  brotherhood  of  man  and  all  belong  to  one  great 
family  of  God,  for  some  of  us  to  have  everything  until 
all  of  us  have  something.  There  is  no  hope  in  the 
shallow  and  mistaken  cry,  "civilization  first  and  Chris- 
tianity afterwards."  It  is  a  watchword  without  promise 
and  without  power.  Civilization,  without  evangelization, 
introduces  more  evils  into  the  non-Christian  world  than 
existed  before  its  arrival.  The  Gospel  is  the  only  hope 
of  social  salvation,  not  to  speak  of  its  moral  and  spiritual 
power,  for  the  unoccupied  fields."  Dr.  Moffat,  after 
twenty-six  years  of  missionary  life,  wrote:  ''Much  has 
been  said  about  civilizing  savages  before  attempting  to 
evangelize  them,  but  we  have  never  yet  seen  a  practical 
demonstration  of  the  truth  of  this  theory.  We  ourselves 
are  convinced  that  evangelization  must  precede  civiliza- 
tion. Nothing  less  than  the  power  of  divine  grace  can 
reform  the  hearts  of  savages.  After  which  the  mind  is 
susceptible  of  those  instructions  which  teach  them  to 
adorn  the  Gospel  they  profess."^ 

*R.  E.  Spcer,  "Missionary  Principles  and  Practice/'  412-420,  and  espe- 
cially J.  S.  Dennis,  "Christian  Missions  and  Social  Progress,"  Vol.  II. 
Cf.  also  the  famous  experiments  of  Bishop  Colenso  of  Natal,  Africa  (1814- 
1883) ;  see  his  life  by  Cox,  London,  18S8. 

'Moffat,  "The  Lives  of  Robert  and  Mary  Moffat,"  372. 


RELIGIOUS  CONDITIONS 


121 


"The  evidence  we  have  to  offer  is  that  of  experience.  We  find 
that  Confucianism,  Buddhism  and  Taoism  have  not  made  the 
corpse  live,  but  only  garlanded  it  with  flowers.  There  are  good 
points  and  teachings  in  these  religions,  but  they  are  simply  pre- 
cepts without  living  power  to  raise  the  people.  .  .  .  These  relig- 
ions have  not  lifted  a  single  burden  or  borne  a  single  sorrow. 
They  have  plunged  the  people  into  hopeless  night  as  regards 
the  future  life,  and  have  given  no  power  to  overcome  sin  in  the 
present  one." 

— Rev.  Joseph  S.  Adams,  Hankow,  China. 


"The  God  of  Mohammed  .  .  .  spares  the  sin  the  Arab  loves.  A 
religion  that  does  not  purify  the  home  cannot  regenerate  the 
race;  one  that  depraves  the  home  is  certain  to  deprave  humanity. 
Motherhood  must  be  sacred  if  manhood  is  to  be  honorable.  Spoil 
the  wife  of  sanctity,  and  for  the  man  the  sanctities  of  life  have 
perished.  And  so  it  has  been  with  Islam.  It  has  reformed  and 
lifted  savage  tribes;  it  has  depraved  and  barbarized  civilized 
nations.  At  the  root  of  its  fairest  culture  a  worm  has  ever  lived 
that  has  caused  its  blossoms  soon  to  wither  and  die.  Were 
Mohammed  the  hope  of  man,  then  his  state  were  hopeless;  before 
him  could  only  lie  retrogression,  tyranny  and  despair." 

—Principal  Fairbaim,  "The  City  of  God." 

"Unconcealed  selfishness,  therefore,  expresses  the  essence  of 
animistic  religion.  Humanity  is  an  idea  which  cannot  be  im- 
planted in  this  heathenism;  it  would  cast  it  out  again.  The 
ideas  of  the  love  of  God  and  man  can  no  more  be  developed  from 
this  heathenism  than  sweet  grapes  could  be  made,  in  course  of 
time,  to  spring  from  a  blackthorn  tree.  It  cannot  even  be  en- 
grafted; the  old  tree  must  be  uprooted  and  a  new  one  planted." 

— Joh.  Wameck,  "The  Living  Christ  and  Dying  Heathenism." 


122 


Chapter  V 

RELIGIOUS  CONDITIONS 

There  is  no  part  of  the  world  nor  of  the  unoccupied 
fields  of  the  world  where  men  are  wholly  without  religion. 
In  nothing  is  the  unity  of  the  race  and  the  solidarity 
of  humanity  more  evident  than  in  the  universal  thirst 
of  the  soul  for  \hat  which  is  above  the  natural  and 
material.^  No  nation  is  so  low  in  the  scale  of  civilization 
but  it  has  some  religious  beliefs  and  aspirations.  Herbert 
Spencer  points  out  this  fact  while  not  admitting  its  full 
import :  '^Religious  ideas  of  one  kind  or  other  are  almost 
universal.  Admitting  that  in  many  places  there  are  tribes 
who  have  no  theory  of  creation,  no  word  for  deity,  no 
propitiatory  acts,  no  idea  of  another  life — admitting  that 
only  when  a  certain  phase  of  intelligence  is  reached  do 
the  most  rudimentary  of  such  theories  make  their  appear- 

*Major  Leonard,  throughout  his  investigation  of  the  tribes  of  Nigeria, 
lays  special  stress  on  the  oneness  of  the  human  race.  He  says  that  the 
negroes  of  Nigeria,  "in  spite  of  their  dark  skins,  woolly  heads,  receding 
foreheads,  prognathous  jaws  and  thick,  protruding  lips,  are  quite  as  human 
as  we  are.  Cultivate  their  acquaintance,  be  sympathetic  with  them  and  gain 
their  confidence,  and  then  it  will  be  possible  to  realize  that  the  same  nature 
is  in  them  as  in  the  most  cultured  European,  the  same  sympathies  and 
antipathies,  the  same  fierce  passions."— "The  Lower  Niger  and  Its 
Tribes,"  55. 

And  again:  "Full  of  the  tragedy  of  life,  with  its  woes  and  sorrows,  its 
misfortunes  and  death,  they  are  equally  alive  to  its  comedies,  the  joy,  the 
mirth  and  the  laughter;  that  is,  the  sunshine  as  opposed  to  the  gloom  and 
darkness."— "The  Lower  Niger  and  Its  Tribes,"  56.  Cf,  also  R.  E.  Dennett, 
"At  the  Back  of  the  Black  Man's  Mind,"  238-240. 

123 


124  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

ance,  the  implication  is  practically  the  same.  .  .  .  The 
universality  of  religious  ideas,  their  independent  evolu- 
tion among  primitive  races  and  their  great  vitality  unite 
in  showing  that  their  source  must  be  deep-seated  instead 
of  superficial."^ 

This  deep-seated  capacity  is  a  Divine  gift  and  has 
immense  significance.  In  the  strange  superstitions,  the 
fanatic  practices  or  the  vagaries  of  folk-lore  among  the 
nations  unreached  by  the  Gospel,  the  missionary  discovers 
not  merely  religious  capacity,  but  Christian  capacity  and 
the  very  eagerness  of  their  far-off  groping  is  a  call 
for  the  True  Light.  Not  only  the  missionary,  but  all 
those  who  study  primitive  races  with  true  sympathy  bear 
witness  to  this  fact. 

"Of  late  years,  evidence  has  been  accumulating,"  says 
Major  Leonard,  ''to  prove  the  spirituality  of  many  savage 
and  barbaric  peoples.  Because  the  outward  symbolism 
is  usually  crude,  the  observer  assumed  that  the  ideas 
that  lie  behind  it  are  equally  elementary  and  ignoble. 
.  .  .  We  now  know  that  our  brethren  most  backward 
in  material  culture  are  imbued  with  ethical  and  religious 
ideas  which  do  not  materially  differ  from  those 
inculcated  by  the  teachers  of  the  religions  of 
civilized  peoples."  Here  is  one  of  the  prayers  used 
by  the  pagans  in  West  Africa:  "Preserve  our  lives,  O 
Father  Spirit  who  hast  gone  before,  and  make  thy  house 
fruitful,  so  that  we,  thy  children,  shall  increase,  multiply, 
and  so  grow  rich  and  powerful."  They  act  on  the 
principle  of.  "Do  unto  your  ancestors  as  you  would  they 
^iiculd  do  unto  you."^ 

Another   example   of  primitive  but   spiritual   thought 

^H.   Spencer,   "First  Principles,"   13,   14. 

?A.  G.  Leonard,  "The  Lower  Niger  and  Its  Tribes,"  Preface,  11,  12. 


RELIGIOUS  CONDITIONS  1 25 

of  high  order  is  found  in  the  beautiful  weird  legend  of 
the  Creation  told  by  the  Papuans.* 

Even  travelers  who  are  out  of  sympathy  with  the 
work  of  missions  admit  that  the  Gospel  is  the  only  hope 
for  such  peoples.  Touch  with  civilization  has  already 
sapped  the  barbarian  vigor  of  these  primitive  tribes. 
It  is  impossible  to  return  to  old  conditions  or  to  halt 
at  the  present  milestone.  "The  Papuan  must  either  de- 
velop or  sink  into  gradual,  but  sure  mental,  moral  and 
physical  extinction."  *T  believe  the  Papuan  has  still 
enough  vitality  left  to  flourish  side  by  side  with,  and  to 
learn  from,  a  more  highly  developed  people.  But  the 
teaching  must  be  gradual,  practical,  systematic,  while 
firmness,  kindness  and  fairness  must  be  the  creed  of 
every  white  man  in  his  dealings  with  the  native,  for  with 
undeveloped  intelligences,  an  ounce  of  practice  is  worth 
a  ton  of  precept."-  Where  can  we  find  ruch  teachers, 
save  among  missionaries?  Who  will  give  them  the 
ounce  of  practice  unless  it  be  those  who  walk  as  Christ 
walked  among  men? 

The  opinion  of  some  travelers,  that  the  nomads  of 
Arabia  or  the  pagans  of  Africa,  are  without  religious 
instinct  or  spiritual  longings,  is  not  borne  out  by  the 
facts.  Douglas  Carruthers,  describing  a  recent  journey 
in  North-western  Arabia,  says:  *T  seldom  saw  a  Bedouin 
praying ;  in  fact,  they  seemed  to  me  to  be  utterly  careless 
of  religion,  and  it  is  certainly  remarkable  that,  although 
Arabia  is  the  center  of  the  Moslem  world,  yet  a  third 
of  its  inhabitants  care  nothing  for  Islam.  The  nomads 
are  not  religious  and  never  were.  They  would  rob  a 
Mecca  pilgrim  as  readily  as  they  would  a  Christian."^ 

'K.   Mackay,  "Across  Papua,"  70. 
'Ibid..    156. 

'Geographical  Journal,  March,  1910,  '*A  Journey  in  North-western  Arabia," 
22s. 


126  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

This  may  be  true  and  yet  anyone  who  peruses  the  pages 
of  Doughty  or  Burckhardt  will  know  that  these  same 
nomads  observe  old  Semitic  rites  and  pour  out  prayers 
in  time  of  trouble  that  remind  one  of  the  deep  spiritual 
life  of  the  patriarchs  who  walked  with  Jehovah."^ 

Because  all  nations  and  peoples  have  this  innate  capacity 
for  religion  and,  therefore,  have  a  right  to  the  highest 
form  of  religion,  the  unoccupied  fields  of  the  world 
should  be  evangelized. 

Not  only  is  there  capacity,  but  there  is  need  for  a 
higher  faith.  In  the  study  of  comparative  religion,  one 
fact  has  never  been  sufficiently  emphasized:  the  non- 
Christian  religions  have  all  had  their  trial  in  the  lands 
which  we  call  ''unoccupied  fields  of  the  world"  un- 
hindered, undisputed  and  without  Christianity  as  a  rival 
or  aggressor  for  centuries.  How  far  have  they  tended 
to  uplift  society,  to  develop  civilization,  to  transform 
character  and  bring  peace  to  the  soul?  Have  these 
religions  themselves,  in  their  long  history,  and  in  their 
full  possession  of  lands  and  lives,  developed  or  deterio- 
rated ?  If  the  light  that  is  in  them  has  become  darkness, 
how  great  is  that  darkness  ? 

Has  Animism  in  Africa  and  Malaysia,  or  Shamanism 
in  Siberia,  grown  richer,  fuller,  nobler,  by  a  process  of 
evolution  ?2  Has  Buddhism  or  Lamaism  become  better 
or  worse,  while  in  the  course  of  centuries  they  dominated 


^C.  M.  Doughty,  "Arabia  Deserta,"  Vol.  I,  241,  259,  264,  470-  S.  M. 
Zwemer,  "Arabia,  the  Cradle  of  Islam,"  157. 

2As  Flora  L.  Shaw  writes  in  A  Tropical  Dependency,  "It  may  happen  that 
we  shall  have  to  revise  entirely  our  view  of  the  black  races  and  regard 
those  who  now  exist  as  the  decadent  representatives  of  an  almost  forgotten 
era  rather  than  as  the  embryonic  possibility  of  an  era  yet  to  come." — 
Quoted  in  R.  E.  Dennett's  ''At  the  Back  of  the  Black  Man's  Mind,"  facing 
page  I.  Cf.  Joh.  Warneck,  "The  Living  Christ  and  Dying  Heathenism," 
98-103. 


^-9. 


RELIGIOUS   CONDITIONS  12/ 

thought  and  Hfe  in  Annam  and  Tibet  undisputed?  What 
has  Islam  added  to  its  original  stock  of  ideas,  either  in 
Arabia  or  Afghanistan,  to  prove  that  the  course  of  its 
development  is  upward  and  onward? 

The  fundamental  test  of  personal  religion  and  of 
national  religion  was  given  by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ : 
"By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them."  By  that  test,  the 
religious  condition  to-day  of  all  the  unoccupied  fields  of 
the  world  is  no  less  needy  and  full  of  pathos  than  their 
social  condition.  Their  spiritual  degradation  and  desti- 
tution is  their  highest  appeal  for  help. 

Xo  fairer  testimony  could  be  given  regarding  the  real 
weakness  of  Islam  than  that  from  the  land  which  is  at 
once  its  cradle  and  its  stronghold,  its  shame  and  its  cyno- 
sure. Arabia  shows  not  only  the  strength  but  the  weak- 
ness of  Islam. 

In  other  lands,  such  as  Syria  and  Egypt,  Islam  has 
been  for  many  centuries  in  contact  and  conflict  with  a 
more  or  less  corrupt  form  of  oriental  Christianity  and 
in  the  past  century,  with  western  civilization  and 
Protestant  missions.  In  India  and  in  China,  Islam  has 
been  in  touch  with  the  culture  of  other  non-Christian 
religions,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  in  both  cases  there 
were  mutual  concessions  and  influences  on  life  and 
thought.  But  in  its  native  Arabian  soil,  the  tree  planted 
by  the  Prophet  has  growa  up  with  wild  freedom  and 
brought  forth  fruit  after  its  kind.  As  regards  morality, 
Arabia  is  on  a  low  plane.  Slavery  and  concubinage  exist 
nearly  everywhere ;  while  polygamy  and  divorce  are  fear- 
fully common.  Fatalism,  the  philosophy  of  the  masses, 
has  utterly  paralyzed  enterprise.  As  regards  industry 
and  invention,  the  Arabian  Peninsula  is  at  the  antipodes 
of  progress — a    land    without    manufactures  and  where 


128  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

machinery  of  any  sort  is  looked  upon  as  a  marvel.  There 
is  universal  distrust  and  suspicion  so  that  in  a  country 
without  large  game  everyone  goes  armed — against  his 
neighbor.  Injustice  abounds  and  is  often  stoically  ac- 
cepted. Bribery  is  too  common  to  be  called  a  crime,  lying 
is  almost  an  art  and  robbery  has  been  reduced  to  a 
science. 

Doughty  and  Palgrave,  who  both  crossed  the  heart 
of  the  Peninsula,  have  given  it  as  their  verdict  that  there 
is  no  hope  for  Arabia  in  Islam.  It  has  been  tried  and  tried 
zealously  for  thirteen  hundred  years  and  piteously  failed. 
Palgrave,  who  spent  many  years  among  Mohammedans, 
and  who  was  so  far  in  sympathy  with  them  that  on  more 
than  one  occasion,  he  conducted  service  for  them  in  their 
mosques,  speaking  of  Arabia  says:  *'When  the  Koran 
and  Mecca  shall  have  disappeared  from  Arabia,  then, 
and  only  then,  can  we  expect  to  see  the  Arab  assume 
that  place  in  the  ranks  of  civilization  from  which  Mo- 
hammed and  his  book  have,  more  than  any  other  cause, 
long  held  him  back." 

In  reference  to  this  same  subject  and  writing  on  the 
impossibility  of  political  independence  for  Egypt  while 
Islam  holds  sway.  Professor  A.  Vambery  asks,  "Does 
there  exist  anywhere  a  Mohammedan  Government  where 
the  deep-seated  evil  of  anarchy,  misrule  and  utter  col- 
lapse does  not  offer  the  most  appalling  picture  of  human 
caducity?"^ 

What  the  fruits  of  this  same  religion  have  been  in 
Afghanistan,  Baluchistan,  Chinese  Turkistan  and  Bo- 
khara is  evident  from  the  social  and  moral  conditions  in 
these  lands,  as  described  in  the  previous  chapter.     Mo- 

»"Pan-Islamism,"  The  Nineteenth  Century,  October,  1906. 


kp.rjoious  ruNDiTiONS  129 

rocco  and  the  Sudan  arc  other  ilhistrations  of  the  iii- 
abihty  of  Islam,  to  uphft  a  people. 

The  prevailing:;-  rcliqion  throuj^hoiit  the  whole  of  Tibet 
is  Laniaism.^  It  is  a  corrupt  form  of  Buddhism  and 
along  with  it  there  still  exists  the  older  Bon  or  Shaman- 
istic  faith.  The  Buddhism  of  Tibet  is  not  that  of  Ceylon 
or  Japan,  yet  it  is  not  devoid  of  the  elements  of  strength 
found  in  the  philosophy  of  Buddha.  It  is  based  on  hun- 
dreds of  sacred  folios  containing  a  system  of  dialectics 
and  doctrine,  hoary  with  age  and  centuries  older  than 
Christianity.  "Proud,  self-righteous  and  self-satisfied,  it 
is,  in  spite  of  its  hollowness  and  superficiality,  stubbornly 
tenacious  of  life  and  so  complete  and  minute  in  its  organi- 
zation that  it  inexorably  sways  the  whole  life,  religious, 
political  and  social,  of  its  adherents."-  Yet  there  is  no 
country  in  the  w^orld  where  the  highest  form  of  com- 
munion with  the  Unseen  God  has  been  reduced  to  a 
more  mechanical  formalism  than  in  the  land  of  the  Lamas. 
Prayer-wheels,  prayer-mills,  prayer-cylinders  are  every- 
where in  evidence.  Prayer  is  driven  by  water  power,  by 
the  winds  that  blow  on  the  "roof  of  the  world,"  and  by 
skill  of  hand. 

Great  ingenuity  is  displayed  in  multiplying  the 
efficacy  of  this  perpetual  cycle  of  prayer.^     The  sacred 

*Yet  it  may  surprise  many  to  learn  that  Lamaism  is  not  the  only  religion 
of  Tibet.  There  are  numbers  of  Mohammedans  in  Northern  Tibet.  They 
are  called  Kachee  by  the  Tibetans.  Mohammedanism  is  making  headway 
and  adding  proselytes.  At  Suching,  Tibetan  families  are  taking  down  cor- 
ners from  their  houses  and  removing  their  idolatrous  symbols.  At  Lhasa 
alone  there  are  said  to  be  two  thousand  families  of  Moslems.  The  total 
number  of  Moslems  in  Tibet  is  already  perhaps  20,000.— M.  Broomhall, 
"Islam  in  China."  206. 

*H.  G.   Schneider,   "Working  and  Waiting  for  Tibet,"  49. 

»B.  de  Lacoste,  "Around  Afghanistan,"  138.  A.  H.  S.  Landor,  "In  the 
Forbidden  Land,"  Vol.  I,  51,  52.  Sven  Hedin,  "Thiough  Asia,"  Vol.  II, 
1062,  1 174. 


130  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

mantra,  Om  Mani  Padme  Hum,  is  written  out  by  the 
priests  or  printed  upon  the  thinnest  possible  paper  and 
hundreds  of  these  sheets  are  compressed  together  and 
attached  to  prayer  wheels.  "A  prayer-wheel,  eight  feet 
in  height,  may  contain  this  same  mantra  about  a  hundred 
million  times.  Every  revolution  of  a  wheel  like  this, 
therefore,  adds  considerably  to  the  credit  side  of  the 
Tibetan's  account  in  heaven."^  The  magic  formula  is 
incessantly  repeated,  is  carved  on  rocks  and  engraven  on 
memories. 

"Om  Mani  Padme  Hum"  literally  signifies  "O 
Thou  Pearl  in  the  Lotus-blossom !"  *Tt  is  an  invocation 
to  Buddha  the  merciful  one,  whose  one  great  self-imposed 
mission  is  the  salvation  of  all  living  creatures  from  the 
miseries  incident  to  sentient  existence  in  the  hope  that  it 
may  lead  them  in  the  way  of  salvation  and  that  he  will, 
hearing  it,  ever  keep  the  world  in  mind."^  And  so  their 
thirst  for  the  Living  God,  is  a  cry  to  be  delivered 
from  existence  and  swallowed  up  in  Nirvana,  everlasting 
forgetfulness ! 

Even  as  the  air  in  Tibet  swarms  with  prayers,  the  land 
swarms  with  priests.^  According  to  a  Chinese  estimate 
for  every  family  there  are  three  lamas.  Mr.  Rockhill 
says  that  in  a  journey  of  six  hundred  miles,  he  passed 
"forty  lamasaries,  in  the  smallest  of  which  there  were 
one  hundred  monks  and  in  five  of  them  from  two  to  four 
thousand."* 

But  the  land  with  its  Lotus-blossom  god,  and  its  omni- 

*P.    Landon,    "The   Opening  of   Tibet,"   65. 

2W.  W.  Rockhill,  "Land  of  the  Lamas,"  227. 

'Half  the  male  population  are  lamas,  according  to  Landor,  and  the  most 
of  them  are  degraded  and  immoial. — A.  H.  S.  Landor,  "In  the  Forbidden 
Land,"  Vol.  I,  275-280,  284,  285,  289.  Cf.  Annie  W.  Marston,  "The  Great 
Closed  Land,"  70-72. 

nV.  W.  Rockhill,  "The  Land  of  the  Lamas,"  215. 


A    HI  IJDHIST    L1:AI)KR    l-KOM     lUll  TAN 


He  wears  charms  and  the  Huddhist  rosary,  and  carries  the  sacred  sword  and 
^tatT.     This  special  dagger  of  wood  or  metal  is  used  to  stab  demons.     130 


I 


RELIGIOUS   CONDITIONS  I3I 

present  priesthood  and  perpetual  prayer,  is  sunk  in  spirit- 
ual ignorance  and  moral  degradation.  The  fruits  of  the 
Spirit  do  not  flourish  on  the  tree  of  Lamaism.  Love, 
joy,  peace,  and  purity  are  not  typical  of  Tibetan  charac- 
ter. There  is  no  progress  and  no  intellectual  develop- 
ment. "Lamaism  is  a  tinkling  cymbal,  a  corpse  of  cere- 
mony, a  thoughtless  void.  Its  aim  is  to  empty  conscious- 
ness of  contents,  to  resolve  personality  into  abstraction. 
Hence  there  is  no  foothold  for  thought  in  the  system,  and 
the  round  of  religious  activity  has  no  more  significance 
as  regards  progress  than  the  marking  of  time  by  soldiers 
who  have  gathered  for  review."'  If  Buddhism  is  the 
light  of  Asia,  then  Lamaism  is  the  light  of  Tibet;  but 
the  light  that  is  in  them  is  darkness,  and  how  great  is 
that  darkness ! 

The  power  of  religion  is  everywhere  felt  but  not  as 
an  uplifting  force  for  righteousness.  Tibet  is  a  nation 
that  has  strayed  "far  from  God  and  is  to-day  lost  in  the 
mazes  of  Buddhist  Atheism. "- 

"As  Buddhism  sways  the  whole  life,"  says  Miss 
Marston,  "religious,  political,  and  social,  the  lamas  may 
be  said  to  be  in  a  very  real  sense  the  rulers  of  the  land, 
no  act  being  performed  without  their  advice  and  sanc- 
tion. They  profess  to  be  able  to  discover  springs,  to  pro- 
duce rain,  to  drive  away  demons,  and  trace  thieves. 
Sometimes  they  are  intelligent  and  well-instructed,  but 
the  great  majority  are  mere  formalists,  and  quite  indif- 
ferent to  the  religion  to  which  they  profess  to  have  de- 

'J.  Douglas  in  the  Missionary  Rcvit~w  of  the  World,  "The  Unoccupied 
Fields,"  June,  1894,  406.  Cf.  Annie  VV.  Marston,  "The  Great  Closed  Land," 
56-64;  Sven  Hedin,  "Through  Asia,"  Vol.  II,  1062,  1176-1179,  and  Dr.  Susie 
Rijnhart,   "With  the  Tibetans  in  Tent  and  Temple,"  66. 

'Bishop  La  Trobe  in  Preface  to  Annie  W.  Marston,  "The  Great  Closed 
Land,"    10. 


132  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDJ5 

voted  themselves.  There  is  gross  ignorance  among  them, 
too,  as  well  as  terrible  sin,  even  the  walls  of  temples 
being  often  covered  with  obscene  words  and  pictures."^ 

And  the  mechanical  character  of  such  a  religion,  with- 
out power  to  produce  morality,  appears  most  of  all  in 
the  daily  life  of  those  in  the  monasteries.  These,  accord- 
ing to  Miss  Marston,  "usually  occupy  a  commanding 
position  on  a  lofty  rock  or  a  mountain  spur,  and  are 
reached  by  rude  staircases  cut  in  the  rock,  with  temples, 
domes,  and  spires  gleaming  with  gold.  The  outer  walls 
are  whitewashed,  frequently  with  broad  bands  of  red  and 
blue.  Prayer-mills  and  wheels,  yaks'  tails  and  flags  on 
poles,  all  turning  or  waving  in  the  wind,  give  an  appear- 
ance of  color  and  life,  while  far  and  near  are  to  be  heard 
the  ringing  of  bells,  the  clanging  of  symbols,  the  beating 
of  drums  and  gongs  or  the  sounding  of  silver  horns. 

"Every  monastery  has  its  temple,  with  its  supply  of  idols 
and  of  sacred  books ;  one  idol  being  nearly  always 
Buddha  with  a  skull  in  his  hand,  the  emblem  of  intel- 
lectual power.  The  larger  monasteries  have  several 
temples,  in  which  different  gods  are  worshipped.  A  lamp 
is  perpetually  burning  in  every  monastery,  fed  in  some 
parts  with  apricot  oil,  in  others  with  butter.  Services 
are  held  in  the  monasteries  morning  and  evening,  open  to 
any  laymen  who  may  like  to  attend.  The  prayers  are  all 
sung  by  the  lamas,  but  as  each  one  sings  a  different  line, 
and  all  at  the  same  time,  a  great  many  are  got  through  in 
a  comparatively  short  time."^ 

It  is  the  conclusive  and  unanimous  testimony  of  mis- 
sionaries on  its  borders  and  of  travelers  who  entered 
the  great  lone  land,  that  Lamaism  has  failed  in  Tibet 

»A.  W.  Marstcn,  'The  Great  Closed  Land,"  68. 
"Ibid.,  70. 


IMACr.S.    SVMI'.OI.S    AXri    IXSTKIMRXTS    OF    T,AM.\ISM    FOUND 

IN  TUF  LA.MASKRV   AT  SlKKl.M   ON   THE   r.OKDKKS 

OF    TIHET 


1  lie  trumpet  is  made  of  a  human  tliigli-bone.  Tlic  doria,  or  thunder- 
bolt, is  a  part  of  every  monk's  equipment  in  Tibet.  It  is  made  of 
bronze  and  shaped  like  the  imaginary  thunderbolt  of  Indra.  The  dorjj. 
is  used  to  drive  away  evil  spirits,  the  instrument  being  waved  backward 
and    forward. 

The  other  objects  in  the  picture  are  prayer  bells,  images  of  Buddha, 
charms,  and  vessels  used  for  ceremonial  purification.  13a 


( 


RELIGIOUS   CONDITIONS  133 

no  less  signally  than  Islam  in  Arabia,  when  we  judge 
the  system  by  its  results.  Bhutan  and  Nepal  also  are 
under  the  spell  of  this  deadening  faith — a  religion  literally 
without  Christ,  without  hope,  without  God. 

The  prevalent  religions  of  the  largest  areas  and  popu- 
lations in  Africa,  Malaysia  and  the  island  world  still  un- 
occupied by  missions  are  designated  as  Animism  and 
Fetichism.  Without  any  sacred  books  and  varying  in 
each  tribe,  in  some  associated  with  worthier  ideas,  in 
others  with  cruel  or  degrading  customs  and  everywhere 
subjecting  the  people  to  the  terrors  and  tyrannies  of 
superstition  and  witchcraft,  these  religions  hold  in  thrall 
untold  millions  of  people.  They  have  had  trial  for 
centuries,  but  instead  of  evolution  or  development,  there 
has  been  only  degeneration.  In  Africa  their  opposition 
to  Christianity  or  to  Islam  is  of  the  weakest.  It  has 
nothing  in  it  of  the  pride  of  fanaticism  such  as  exists 
in  Christianity's  great  rival  in  Africa,  nor  does  it  oppose 
an  adamantine  social  barrier  such  as  that  of  caste  in 
India.  Its  very  misery  makes  it  welcome  relief;  its  utter 
darkness  makes  it  glad  of  light.  There  are,  indeed, 
vested  interests  of  darkness  to  be  overcome,  but  the  field 
is  one  w^here,  as  in  Uganda  and  Livingstonia,  rapid  and 
widespread  triumphs  of  the  Gospel  are  possible.*  "It  is 
a  shame  to  the  Churches  of  Christendom  that  they  have 
not  anticipated  the  Powers  of  Europe  in  a  partition  of 
Africa  for  the  bringing  of  these  millions  into  the  King- 


*Joh.  Wameck,  "The  Living  Christ  and  Dying  Heathenism,"  103,  118,  119. 

"Mr.  Bentley  asks:  'What  are  we  to  infer  from  the  present  state  of 
things?  Is  the  idea  of  God  being  slowly  evolved  out  of  fetichism?  Is  it 
not  rather  that  the  people  have  well  nigh  lost  the  knowledge  of  God  which 
once  their  forefathers  possessed?'  Exactly— I  should  infer  from  the  long 
study  of  the  people  that  I  have  made  that  such  is  certainly  the  case."  — 
R.  E.  Dennett.  "At  the  Back  of  the  Black  Man's  Mind,"  168. 


134  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

dom  of  Christ."^  The  people  under  the  terrible  thrall 
of  Animistic  faiths  are  surely  in  need  of  the  Gospel.  Their 
highest  religious  practices  are  in  many  cases  full  of  sin 
and  degradation. 

Cannibalism  itself  is  not  due  to  lack  of  all  religion, 
but  is  based  upon  the  degenerated  beliefs  of  Animism. 
''From  the  entire  constitution  of  their  priestly  craft," 
says  Major  Leonard,  ''it  is  evident  that  cannibalism  not 
only  had,  but  still  has,  a  spiritual  or  sacrificial  signifi- 
cance; and  that,  in  other  words,  however  this  may  have 
degenerated  in  principle,  it  was  originally  a  religious  and 
absolutely  indispensable  sacrament."^  A  religion  that  has 
for  its  sacraments  the  demoniac  cruelties,  such  as  are 
bound  up  with  the  practice  of  cannibalism  is  its  own  con- 
demnation. 

"The  splendor  of  the  tropics,"  says  Warneck,  "has  been 
unable  to  brighten  the  religious  life  of  the  Animist.  The 
results  of  his  reflections  are  hard,  dark  and  cheerless. 
The  friendly  gods  are  far  away,  the  spirits  are  numerous 
and  formidable,  their  service  hard,  while  fate  is  pitiless 
and  their  own  souls  unmerciful.  How  precious  must 
religion  be  to  men  when  it  leads  them  to  accept  such 
burdens."^  And  how  great  must  be  our  responsibility 
to  lift  that  burden  by  bringing  them  the  knowledge  of 
Jesus  Christ  and  his  Gospel ;  to  interpret  to  them  Christ's 
gracious  invitation :  "Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  are  weary 
and  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest."  Heathenism 
is  without  hope ;  it  is  full  of  fear  and  terror.  Never  has 
a  tyrant  more  cruelly  tormented  his  slaves  than  demons 


^Report  of   World   Missionary  Conference,   Edinburgh,   1910,   Vol.   I. 
'A.  G,  Leonard,  "The  Lower  Niger  and  Its  Tribes,"  403;  R.  E.  Dennett, 
•At  the  Back  of  the  Black  Man's  Mind,"  263-265. 
2Joh.  Warneck,  "The  Living  Christ  and  Dying  Heathenism,"  81. 


RELIGIOUS   CONDITIONS  1 35 

and  spirits  to-day  terrorize  millions  of  their  blinded 
worshippers.^ 

In  another  chapter  of  his  masterly  psychological  study 
of  Animistic  heathenism,  Warneck  speaks  of  the  power 
of  demons  and  quotes  the  experience  of  missionary  Lett 
on  the  island  of  Nias:  "It  may  be  difficult  to  distinguish 
the  actual  influence  of  demoniac  powers  from  conscious 
dissimulation,  delusion,  lying  and  deceit.  But  this  is 
certain,  that  in  the  heathen  world  still  untouched  by  the 
Gospel,  there  are  dark  spiritual  powers  at  work  of  which 
we  in  Christendom  know  nothing,  and  that  the  heathen 
are  exposed  to  many  influences  from  the  kingdom  of 
darkness  from  which  we  seem  to  be  protected."  In  other 
words,  their  terror  is  not  mere  superstition  but  is  a  real 
terror  of  real  forces. 

Now,  whether  it  be  true,  as  he  goes  on  to  allege,  that 
in  the  evangelization  of  the  unoccupied  fields  of  Malaysia, 
as  well  as  among  the  pagans  in  Africa,  we  face  a  con- 
flict with  supernatural  forces  and  agencies,  or  whether 
we  deny  this,  it  is  beyond  dispute  that  such  heathenism, 
left  alone,  cannot  develop  itself,  but  must  be  uprooted 
and  supplanted.^  Paganism  has  produced  fruit  after  its 
own  kind.  It  has  no  hope  of  reform  or  progress.  It 
produces  no  transformation  of  character.  It  does  not 
improve  ethically  by  evolution.  Their  whole  environ- 
ment must  be  uplifted  and  transformed.  Therefore,  the 
evangelization  of  Pagan   Africa  means   more  than   the 

'Joh.  Warneck,  "Th;  Living  Christ  and  Dying  Heathenism,"  74-81.  Cf.  J. 
Curtin,  "A  Journey  in  Southern  Siberia,"  45-50,  119-126.  A.  G.  Leonard, 
"The  Lower  Niger  and  Its  Tribes,"  392-405.  Major  Leonard  devotes  an 
entire  chapter  to  the  witch-doctors  of  Africa,  their  methods  and  poisons  and 
agrees  with  Warneck  that  the  dark  practices  of  Animism  terrorize  the 
people's  conscience. 

*Joh.  Warneck,  "The  Living  Christ  and  Dying  Heathenism,"  103-118,  119, 
134. 


136  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

introduction  of  the  Gospel  into  existing  forms  of  social 
life,  as  may  be  the  case  in  lands  of  culture.  Here  we 
must  begin  at  the  bottom.  Here  it  means  the  introduc- 
tion of  education  and  letters,  of  agriculture,  and  indus- 
tries, of  Christian  marriage,  and  of  the  due  recognition 
of  the  sanctity  of  human  life  and  of  property.  The  prob- 
lem before  the  Church  is  the  creation  of  a  Christian 
African  civilization.^ 

Ethically,  as  well  as  socially  and  spiritually,  Animism 
is  on  a  low  plane.  Lying  is  fearfully  common  and  charac- 
teristic among  Animists.  It  is  to  them  synonymous  with 
cleverness.  The  Battaks  cannot  understand  that  lies  are 
dishonorable.  The  same  is  true  of  the  Dayaks  in  Borneo, 
and  of  all  the  heathen  of  the  Indian  Archipelago.  They 
are  shocking  liars.  "Without  a  quiver  of  the  eyelid,  they 
will  use  the  deepest  curses  to  confirm  their  lies."  Uni- 
versal distrust  is  the  result  of  this  mendacity,  and  the 
climax  of  their  art  of  lying  is  that  the  deities  themselves 
are  deceived  in  their  very  worship.^  Yet  with  all  this, 
the  Animists  have  a  deep  unsatisfied  longing  and  a  thirst 
for  the  living  God.  '*A  longing  and  seeking  after  God 
runs  through  the  Animistic  world  like  a  vein  of  gold  in 
the  dirty  rock,  and  those  mission  workers  who  are  unable 
to  discover  ideas  of  God  in  heathenism,  amid  all  its  errors, 
commit  a  serious  mistake."^ 

Turning  from  this  general  argument  on  the  inadequacy 
of  the  various  religions  that  now  occupy  the  unoccupied 
mission  fields,  we  notice  three  special  characteristics  which 
all  have  in  common  and  each  of  which  emphasizes  the 

^Report  of  World  Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgh,  1910,  Vol.  I,  Section 
on  Africa;  Cf.  R.  E.  Dennett,  "At  the  Back  of  the  Black  Man's  Mind," 
238-240. 

*Joh.  Warneck,  "The  Living  Christ  and  Dying  Heathenism,"  93-95' 

•Ibid.,  96. 


iL.MS,    IJJOLS    AM)    l"i:ilC  lli:.S    IKOM    MOW    CiLlNKA 


As  are  the  gods,  so  are  their  worshippers.  "The  essence  of  heathenism 
t.<-day  is  determined  by  ('lodlessness.  not  by  that  dim  longing  after  the 
true  God,  and  it  derives  its  characteristic  marks  from  ( lodlessness.  Its 
powers,  born  of  earth,  drag  downwards,  not  upwards,  .\hsokite  hopeless- 
ness stares  the  dying  in  the  face."  (W'arneck,  '•The  Living  Christ  and 
Dying  Heathenism."    i3-'-i3J)  i.^6 


RELIGIOUS   CONDITIONS  137 

claim  of  these  fields  to  know  Christ  as  the  supreme  and 
unique  Dehverer  and  our  only  Saviour.  First  there  are 
inadequate  or  degrading:  conceptions  of  God  and  of  the 
future  life;  there  is  religious  tyranny,  the  bondage  of 
priesthood,  witch-doctors,  lamas  and  other  religious 
leaders  whose  scandalous  lives  are  an  indictment  of  the 
religion  they  represent ;  and  there  is  neither  hope  nor  that 
joy  and  peace  which  the  Gospel  alone  can  give. 

The  belief  in  a  Supreme  God  among  the  pagans  of 
Africa  and  Malaysia  is  vague,  shadowy,  and  often  quite 
latent.  The  idea  of  God  is  very  low.  "Our  people,"  says 
Donald  Fraser,  concerning  Central  Africa,  "believe  in 
one  Supreme  God,  but  the  only  thing  they  know  about 
His  character  is  that  He  is  fierce.  He  is  the  Creator 
and  is  above  all  the  forces  of  the  world.  But  men  have 
no  access  to  Him.  No  prayers  or  offerings  are  made  to 
Him.  He  brings  death  into  the  home.  And  when  a 
dear  one  is  taken  away,  they  say  God  is  fierce."^  One 
can  see  the  grotesque  and  debasing  ideas  of  God  on 
entering  the  temples  of  fetich-worship.  "Inside  the 
Ju-ju  houses  are  various  and  numerous  clay  images  of 
human  beings,  beasts  of  different  kinds,  snakes,  leopards, 
the  moon,  stars  and  the  rainbow.  The  walls  are  orna- 
mented with  the  cheap  hardware  plates  of  commerce  that 
are  brought  to  them  in  return  for  produce.  They  are 
let  into  the  walls  along  with  cowries,  and  arranged  with 
a  not  inartistic  style  in  rude  designs  and  patterns."^  Crude 
also  are  the  symbols  of  Deity  among  the  people  of  New 
Guinea  and  the  Solomon  Islands,  as  we  see  in  the  illus- 
tration opposite, 

^Report  of  World  Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgh,  1910,   VoL  IV. 

*A.  G.  Leonard,  "The  Lower  Niger  and  Its  Tribes,"  408-409.  Cf.  H.  E. 
Dennett,  "At  the  Back  of  the  Black  Man's  Miad,"  197,  and  its  illustrations 
opposite  94  and  194. 


138  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

The  gods  of  the  Buriats  of  Southern  Siberia,  whose 
rehgion  is  also  animistic,  are  described  by  Jeremiah 
Curtin.  He  tells  of  their  gruesome  horse-sacrifices  and 
other  ceremonies  to  gain  merit  or  pardon.  In  the  poly- 
theistic system  of  their  strange  faith  there  are,  under 
Sagan  Burkan,  the  Supreme  White  God,  other  spirits 
called  Tangeris.  To  these  Ongons,  or  household  gods, 
they  make  sacrifice  and  hang  up  rabbit  skins,  sacred 
relics,  or  metallic  figures  on  bits  of  cloth  are  described 
by  Jeremiah  Curtin.^  'The  long  skin  is  that  of  a  skunk, 
and  represents  the  god  who  came  down  in  the  form 
of  hail  and,  entering  a  girl  of  thirteen,  was  born  and 
named  Mindin  Qubun  Iryil.  All  things  are  asked  of 
him.  He  is  very  kindly  and  grants  many  prayers."^ 
As  another  illustration  of  this  "primitive  religion"  which, 
after  all  these  centuries,  has  not  developed  into  anything 
higher  or  better,  we  give  Curtin's  description  of  the  horse- 
sacrifice  observed  without  change  since  the  days  of  Ghen- 
gis  Khan  among  people  still  ignorant  of  the  Lamb  of  God 
that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world;  the  account  is 
so  significant  and  typical  that  we  do  not  abbreviate : 

"The  Tailgan,  or  Horse  Sacrifice,  takes  place  on  a  hill 
called  Uher,  about  seven  miles  from  Usturdi.  On  this 
hill  fifteen  large  stone  altars  have  been  built.  .  .  .  First 
the  horse  is  purified  by  being  led  between  the  fires 
(there  must  be  either  three,  nine  or  twenty-seven  fires), 
then  it  is  led  up  toward  the  officiating  persons,  who 
sprinkle  milk  on  its  face,  and  on  the  hair  halter,  and 
cast  some  in  the  air  to  the  gods.  .  .  .  Those  who  are 
officiating  appeal  to  the  divinities,  and  the  people  follow 

*J.  Curtin,  "A  Journey  in  Southern  Siberia,"  119-130. 
'Ibid.  121. 


RELIGIOUS   CONDITIONS  1 39 

them,  either  aloud  or  mentally.  Each  man  prays  usually 
for  what  he  likes  best,  or  most  desires.  When  this 
prayer  was  ended,  long-  ropes  were  tied  securely  around 
the  fetlocks  of  the  horse,  each  rope  was  held  by  four 
men,  then  the  eight  men  in  front  pulled  the  forelegs  for- 
ward and  somewhat  apart,  while  the  other  eight  pulled 
the  hindlegs  back  and  apart.  The  horse  fell  on  its  side, 
and  then  turned  on  its  back.  The  sixteen  men  held  the 
ropes  firmly  and  the  beast  was  utterly  helpless.  A  man, 
his  right  arm  bare  to  the  shoulder,  now  came  with  a  long 
sharp  knife  and  with  one  blow  made  a  deep  incision  just 
behind  the  breast  bone.  He  thrust  his  hand  into  the 
opening,  seized  the  heart  of  the  horse,  and  wrenched  it 
free  from  its  connections.  The  poor  beast  tried  to  struggle, 
but  could  not,  and  died  very  quickly.  With  the  other 
horse,  it  was  somewhat  different.  The  man  rrvust  have 
done  his  work  unskilfully,  or  his  hand  was  weaker,  for 
after  he  had  withdrawn  his  arm  and  finished,  as  he 
thought,  the  beast  regained  its  position  to  the  extent  of 
being  able  to  bite  the  ground  in  agony.  The  sight  was 
distressing.  Its  teeth  were  bared  in  a  ghastly  grin ;  the 
eyes  became  green  and  blue,  much  like  the  color  of  cer- 
tain beetles.  A  more  striking  expression  of  piercing  and 
helpless  agony  I  have  never  seen.  It  groaned  once  with 
a  sound  of  unspeakable  anguish,  kept  its  mouth  for  a 
moment  in  the  earth  and  then  dropped  over  lifeless."^ 

Such  is  one  feature  of  the  strange  religion  of  the  pas^an 
inhabitants  of  Siberia.  Can  any  one  question  their  need  of 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ?  Shall  the  Christian  Church 
withhold  it  longer? 

Whether,  however,  the  other  Buriats,  who  live  east  of 
Lake  Baikal,  and  have  turned  Buddhists,  or  the  Tibetans 

*J.  Curtin,  "A  Journey  in  Southern  Siberia,"  44,  45,  46. 


140  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

with  their  mixed  creed  of  Shamanism  and  Buddhism, 
have  practically  reached  a  higher  way  of  salvation  and  a 
higher  conception  of  God,  is  an  open  question.^  Budd- 
hism, at  its  best,  has  not  proved  the  light  of  Asia  even 
for  the  pagan  races  that  adopted  it. 

In  regard  to  conditions  in  Indo-China  Gabrielle  M. 
Vassal  writes:  "Religion  and  superstition  are  so 
intermingled  in  the  mind  of  the  Annamese  and 
in  his  performance  of  all  rites  and  ceremonies,  that  it 
is  impossible  to  speak  of  one  without  the  other."  Super- 
stition and  sorcery  go  side  by  side  with  the  Buddhist 
and  Taoist  worship.  The  worship  of  spirits  and  genii 
control  his  whole  life.  "The  elephant,  the  silk-worm 
and  the  rat  enjoy  a  real  cult,  but  the  animal  which  is 
most  venerated  and  inspires  the  greatest  number  of  super- 
stitions is  the  tiger."2  The  Aborigines  of  Annam,  called 
the  Mois,  bury  their  dead  and  then,  through  a  hollow, 
bamboo,  provide  them  with  food  for  about  a  year.  The 
pathos  of  these  Christless  graves  and  of  the  buffalo- 
sacrifice,  made  to  ward  off  pestilence,  show  that  the 
heathenism  of  Indo-China  is  also  hopeless.^ 

And  what  can  we  say  of  the  religious  leaders  of  the 
lands  under  the  spell  of  Buddhism? 

The  intellectual  and  spiritual  stagnation  of  a  Buddhist 
monastery  is  typical  of  their  whole  religious  life.  Of 
the  Chinese  Buddhist  priests.  Lord  Curzon  writes :  "Their 
piety  is  an  illusion  and  their  pretensions  a  fraud.    They 


^One  might  well  envy  a  resting  place  in  the  quiet  Buriat  graveyard  of 
Southern  Siberia,  under  the  blue  sky  and  with  farewells,  rather  than  the 
hacking-stone  of  Lhasa  and  the  Nirvana  of  Buddhism. — Cf.  Curtin,  "A 
Journey  in  Southern  Siberia,"  103.  Cf.  A.  H.  S.  Landor,  "In  the  For- 
bidden Land."  Vol.  II.  70,  71- 

2G.  M.  Vassal,  "On  and  Off  Duty  in  Anawn,"  X4e-i23. 

*Ibid.,  226-23$. 


RELIGIOUS   CONDITIONS  I4I 

arc  the  outcasts  of  society.  The  expression  on  their 
faces  is  one  of  idiotic  absorption.  This  is  not  surprising, 
considering  that  of  the  words  which  they  intone  scarcely 
one  syllabic  do  they  themselves  understand.  The  Mass 
book  is  a  dead  letter  to  them  for  it  is  written  in  Sanscrit 
or  Pali,  which  they  can  no  more  decipher  than  fly.  The 
words  they  chant  are  merely  equivalent  in  sounds,  and  as 
used  in  Chinese  are  totally  devoid  of  sense. "^ 

The  hopeless  and  degrading  character  of  Lamaism  is 
written  on  the  faces  of  its  priesthood  and  is  evident  in 
their  degraded  lives. ^  Some  live  in  open  immorality. 
"The  lamas  who,  at  certain  periods  of  the  year,  are 
allowed  an  unusual  amount  of  freedom  with  women,  are 
those  who  practice  the  art  of  making  musical  instruments 
and  eating-vessels  out  of  human  bones.  .  .  .  These  par- 
ticular lamas  are  said  to  relish  human  blood,  which  they 
drink  out  of  the  cups  made  of  human  skulls."^ 

"It  disgusted  me."  says  Sven  Hedin,  writing  of  Kum- 
bum  and  its  temple  of  ten  thousand  images,  "to  see  those 
lazy  fellows  sauntering  about  among  the  magnificent 
temples  doing  literally  nothing.  Apart  from  age,  the 
only  difference  I  could  detect  among  this  army  of  temple 
satellites  was  that  some  were  dirtier  than  others.  The 
walls  were  painted  with  a  whole  series  of  pictures  of 
the  gods.  Their  wrinkled  brows,  broad  noses,  widely 
expanded  nostrils,  distorted  mouths,  screwed-up  mus- 
tachios  and  black  eyebrows  put  me  in  mind  of  evil  spirits 
rather  than  gods.     But  these  features  were  intended  to 

>G.  N.  Curzon.  "Problems  of  the  Far  East,"  345-355-  Cf.  Sven  Hedin, 
"Through  Asia,"  Vol.  II.  1176-1178. 

»A.  H.  S.  Landor,  "In  the  Forbidden  Land,"'  Vol,  II,  36,  68,  no.  S.  C. 
Rijnhart,  "With  the  Tibetans  in  Tent  and  Temple,"  loa,  WS'.  Lady  Jetxkms, 
"Sport  and  Travel  ia  Both  Tibets,"  ji 

•A.  H.  S.  Uodor,  "In  th«  Forbidden  L*nd,"  Vol.  I,  J89. 


142  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION   FIELDS 

depict  the  awful  and  destructive  power  of  the  gods.  ...  I 
bought  a  prayer-drum  made  out  of  the  crowns  of  a  couple 
of  human  skulls."^ 

Living  such  a  life  and  amid  such  surroundings  under 
the  spell  of  such  a  faith,  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  ignorance 
of  the  lamas  in  Tibet  is  colossal.  One  of  them,  an  abbot, 
said  to  Captain  O'Connor,  "The  earth  is  shaped  like  a 
shoulder  of  mutton-bone,  and  so  far  from  being  only  a 
small  country,  Tibet  occupies  nearly  one-half  of  its  whole 
extent  !"2  The  lamas  victimize  the  people  and  hold  back 
the  key  of  knowledge,  barring  every  path  of  intellectual 
progress.  The  lamas  are  first  and  the  laity  are  no- 
where. It  is  a  kingdom  of  priests  who  oppress  the 
people.  Tibet  has  been  closed  by  the  lamas  and  for  the 
lamas,  not  by  or  for  the  people.^ 

*Tt  is  not  that  Lhasa  is  for  Buddhists  only,  for  the 
Mohammedan  butcher  works  in  the  shadow  of  the  Potala 
and  casts  the  bones  and  horns  and  refuse  of  his  trade 
on  the  very  Ling-Por,  which  circles  the  holiest  places 
and  is  the  via  sacrissima  of  all  the  pilgrim  paths  to  Lhasa. 
But  it  is  the  Westerner,  because  he  is  a  Westerner  to 
whom  Lhasa  has  been  barred,  and  all  his  efforts,  until 
only  lately,  failed  to  undo  the  bars.  The  lamas  terrorized 
the  people.  The  hierarchy  of  Lhasa  declared  the  responsi- 
bility of  any  European  reaching  their  city  should  be  upon 


^Sven  Hedin,  "Through  Asia,"  Vol.  II,  1177-1181, 

*P.  Landon,  "The  Opening  of  Tibet,"  30. 

•"The  monasteries  at  Lhasa,  Shigatse  and  Gyantse  are  collegiate  insti- 
tutions with  10,000  inmates.  For  their  support  cultivable  land  is  allotted, 
and  to  such  extent  has  this  proceeded  that  there  is  barely  enough  agri- 
cultural land  left  for  the  working  population.  In  addition  to  the  proceeds 
of  the  sequestrated  land,  the  monks  exact  large  sums  in  cash  and  kind  in 
payment  of  the  religious  duties  they  perform  for  the  people."— Col.  G. 
Wingate  in  Missionary  Review  of  the  World,  May,  1907. 


Photograph,  Underwood  &  i'ttdcrwood,  N.  Y. 

THK   DALAI    LAMA   OF  TIP.ET 


This  is  the  man  whom  Sven  Ilcdin  in  the  recent  article  in  the  "Con- 
temporary Review,"  August,  1910,  calls  the  "Holy  Kmg,"  ("ivalwa  Kinpoche, 
the  once  powerful  inrarnatiun  of  Chenresi,  the  (irand  Tope  Ngavang,  Lob- 
sang  Trebden  (lyatso  Dalai  Lama.  "What  a  wonderful  career!  He  enters 
mto  negotiations  with  Russia  and  forces  England  into  war.  He  hurries  as 
a  fugitive  through  Tibet  and  Mongolia,  received  everywhere  like  a  king. 
He  escapes  from  great  difficulties,  is  venerated  in  Peking,  and  returns  to 
Lhasa  when  the  storm  is  over  and  past.  Then  he  forces  China  into  war. 
Finally,  he  hurries  away  destitute  of  everything  as  a  begging  friar  to  seek 
help  in  India.  He  is  not  content  with  windmills,  this  Asiatic  Don  Quixote; 
no,  it  must  be  the  Great   Powers  that  are  to  do  all   he  wants. 

"What  a  fine  romance  Dumas  would  have  been  able  to  write  about 
this  Dalai  Lama,  of  the  processions  and  hurried  journeys,  a  romance  as 
thrilling,  though  of  a  different  kind,  as  'The  Count  of  Monte  Cristo.'  He 
is  a  new  edition  of  Ck-ment  W  Darjeeling  is  his  Avignon;  he  lives  there 
in  the  Babylonian  e.xile  of  the  Lamaistic  Popes.  And  yet  he  enjoys  the 
only  freedom  that  a  man  of  his  position  and  conditions  in  life  can  expect, 
namely,  a  freedom  insifle  strongly  guarded  cloister  walls.  Still,  in  his  own 
eyes,  he  is  ever  Chenresi,  the  divine  incarnation  of  long  life,  and  he  con- 
t>nuc:>  tu   pray   a?*  before  at  the  altar  of   his  god."  14a 


RELIGIOl'S   CONDITIONS  143 

the  villages  and  villagers  on  his  route,  and  the  chiefs 
thereof  chould  pay  the  penalty  with  their  heads. "^ 

When  the  Chinese  Government,  on  February  lO,  1910, 
issued  an  edict  deposing  the  Dalai  Lama,  it  dcscril)cd 
him  as  having  displayed  "unprecedented  pride,  extrava- 
gance, licentiousness,  insubordination  and  unruliness," 
and  as  "crafty,  full  of  deceit,  unstable  in  his  allegiance, 
and  ungrateful."-  This  is  an  official  character-sketch  of 
the  Incarnation  of  Buddha  with  all  his  halo  and  super- 
natural ancestry ! 

It  is  impossible  for  a  stream  to  rise  higher  than  its 
source.  Like  priest,  like  people.  No  one  can  read  the 
unprejudiced  testimony  of  Landor,  Younghusband,  Sven 
Hedin  and  others  without  admitting  that  Lamaism  is  the 
curse  of  Tibet.  It  has  immured  a  nation  and  buried  hope 
and  progress  almost  as  effectually,  disastrously  and  cruelly 
as  it  sanctions  the  burial  alive  of  its  own  monks  to  win 
religious  merit.^  What  more  terrible  and  more  pathetic 
picture  could  there  be  than  this:  "Without  any 
hesitation,  the  abbot  led  the  way  out  into  the 
sunshine.  .  .  .  We  climbed  about  forty  feet,  and 
the  abbot  led  us  into  a  small  courtyard  which  had  blank 
walls  all  round  it,  over  which  a  peach-tree  reared  its 
transparent  pink  and  white  against  the  sky.     Almost  on 


'Rev.  W.  S.  Norwood  in  Dawn  in  Central  Asia,  May,  igio.  See  also  Zur 
Characteristik  des  Lamisttschen  Buddhismus  (a  review  of  Sven  Hedin's  "Trans- 
himalaya")  m  Allg.    Miss.  Zeitschnft,  March,   1910. 

•Quoted  in  editorial.  Church  Missionary  Revxrw,  May,  1910,  313.  Cf.  Sven 
Hedin,  "The  Policy  of  the  Dalai  Lama."  Contemporary  Revuw,  August, 
191a. 

•The  horrible  custom  of  immuring  monks,  prevalent  in  Tibet,  is  described 
in  all  its  hideousness  by  those  who  have  seen  it.  "Some  endure  it  for  six 
months,  others  for  three  years  and  others  for  life,  and  the  custom  is  the 
more  revolting  because  the  men  enter  upon  it  willingly,  a  hideous  and 
useless  form  of  self-sacrifice,  haunting  those  who  have  once  seen  it  as  a 
nightmare  of  horror."— P.    Landon.   "The   Opening  of  Tibet,"    107109. 


144  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

a  level  with  the  ground  there  was  an  opening  closed  with 
a  flat  stone  from  behind.  In  front  of  this  window  was 
a  ledge  eighteen  inches  in  width,  with  two  basins  beside 
it,  one  at  each  end.  The  abbot  was  attended  by  an 
acolyte  who,  by  his  master's  orders,  tapped  three  times 
sharply  on  the  stone  slab ;  we  stood  in  the  little  court- 
yard in  the  sun,  and  watched  that  wicket  with  cold  appre- 
hension. I  think,  on  the  whole,  it  was  the  most  uncanny 
thing  I  saw  in  all  Tibet.  What  on  earth  was  going  to 
appear  when  that  stone  slab,  which  even  then  was  begin- 
ning weakly  to  quiver,  was  pushed  aside,  the  wildest  con- 
jecture could  not  suggest.  After  half  a  minute's  pause, 
the  stone  moved,  or  tried  to  move,  but  it  came  to  rest 
again.  Then  very  slowly  and  uncertainly  it  was  pushed 
back  and  a  black  chasm  was  revealed.  There  was  again 
a  pause  of  thirty  seconds,  during  which  imagination  ran 
riot,  but  I  do  not  think  that  any  other  thing  could  have 
been  as  intensely  pathetic  as  that  which  we  actually  saw. 
A  hand,  muffled  in  a  tightly  wound  piece  of  dirty  cloth, 
for  all  the  world  like  the  stump  of  an  arm,  was  painfully 
thrust  up,  and  very  weakly  it  felt  along  the  slab.  After 
a  fruitless  fumbling,  the  hand  slowly  quivered  back  again 
into  the  darkness.  A  few  moments  later,  there  was  again 
one  ineffectual  effort,  and  then  the  stone  slab  moved 
noiselessly  again  across  the  opening.  Once  a  day,  water 
and  an  unleavened  cake  of  flour  is  placed  for  the  prisoner 
upon  that  slab,  the  signal  is  given,  and  he  may  take  it 
in.  His  diversion  is  over  for  the  day,  and  in  the  dark- 
ness of  his  cell,  where  night  and  day,  moon,  sunset,  and 
the  dawn,  are  all  alike,  he — poor  soul ! — had  thought  that 
another  day  of  his  long  penance  was  over."^ 

»P.  Landon,  "The  Opening  of  Tibet,"  107108.    On  Lamaism  in  Mongoli*, 
tee  M.  Broomhall,  "The  Chinese  Empire,  "  339-359- 


RELIGIOUS  CONDITIONS  145 

Islam  dominates,  as  we  have  seen,  the  largest  areas 
of  the  unoccupied  fields  of  the  world,  and  in  Africa  the 
largest  unreached  population.  Islam  is  proud  to  write 
on  its  banner  the  Unity  of  God ;  but  it  is  after  all  a  banner 
to  the  Unknown  God.  If  Mohammedan  monotheism  had 
in  it  the  elements  of  salvation  and  progress  for  its 
devotees,  surely  Arabia  would  have  witnessed  the  result, 
or  Morocco,  or  Afghanistan.  But  by  the  witness  of 
history  it  has  failed  utterly.  Mohammedan  monotheism, 
granting  all  that  should  be  said  in  its  favor  because  it 
rises  so  high  above  the  conception  of  deity  in  all  other 
non-Christian  religions,  yet  lacks  four  elements  which 
are  present  not  only  in  the  Christian  idea  of  the  Godhead, 
but  in  the  Old  Testament  conception  as  well.  There  is 
no  fatherhood  of  God  in  Islam.  Because  Allah  is  a 
Sultan  and  not  a  father,  the  very  contemplation  of  such 
a  deity  is  like  an  ice-floe  over  the  tide  of  human  trusts 
and  causes  us  to  feel  that  we  are  orphaned  children  in  a 
homeless  world.  The  Moslem  idea  of  God  is  also  con- 
spicuously lacking  in  the  attribute  of  love;  Allah  is  not 
absolutely  and  eternally  bound  by  any  standard  of  justice. 
And  fourthly,  there  is  an  utter  lack  of  harmony  in  his 
attributes.^ 

Islam  was  born  in  the  desert  and  has  carried  a  moral 
desert  with  it  wherever  it  has  carried  its  conquest.  Schle- 
gel.  in  his  "Philosophy  of  History,"  has  well  described 
its  leading  features  in  a  single  sentence:  "A  prophet 
without  miracles ;  a  faith  without  mysteries ;  and  a 
morality  without  love;  which  has  encouraged  a  thirst 
for  blood,  and  which  began  and  ended  in  the  most  un- 
bounded sensuality." 

»S.  M.  Zwemer,  "The  Moslem   Doctrine  of  God,"   108-120.     Cf.   Palgrave's 
"Characterization  of  Allah,  Central  and  Eastern  Arabia,"  Vol.  I,  366. 


146  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

The  present  immoral  condition  of  Mecca  and  every 
center  of  Moslem  pilgrimage  in  Persia  and  Central  Asia; 
the  evils  of  misrule  in  Morocco,  Tripoli  and  Afghanis- 
tan;  the  recent  massacres  at  Adana, — are  all  up-to-date 
testimony  concerning  the  real  inward  character  of  this 
religion.  It  is  inadequate  to  meet  the  moral  and  spiritual 
needs  of  any  soul  or  any  people.^ 

The  leaders  of  Moslem  religious  life  and  thought  are 
called  mullahs,  imams,  kadis,  fakirs,  etc.,  and  they  exer- 
cise tremendous  power  in  Islam,  although  not  technically 
a  priesthood.  This  power  is  specially  evident  in  the 
lands  out  of  touch  with  western  civilization  and  missions. 

In  Afghanistan,  the  mullahs  are  ubiquitous,  powerful, 
fanatic,  hostile  and  often  traitors  to  British  rule.^  They 
are  often  illiterate  and  immoral.'  The  fakirs  are 
nearly  all  illiterate  and  the  ghazis  are  the  product 
of  their  fanaticism.  "A  ghazi  is  a  man  who  has 
taken  an  oath  to  kill  some  non-Mohammedan,  preferably 
a  European.  The  mullah  instills  into  him  the  idea  that 
if  in  so  doing  he  loses  his  own  life,  he  goes  at  once  to 
Paradise.  Not  a  year  passes  on  the  frontier  but  some 
young  officer  falls  a  victim  to  one  of  these  fanatics."* 

The  Afghans  have  a  striking  proverb  which  shows  the 
popular  estimate  of  these  religious  leaders,  "It  takes 
two  mullahs  to  make  a  man."^ 

And  yet  the  people  are  abjectly  afraid  of  them,  as  they 


^R.  E.  Speer,  "The  Non-Christian  Religions  Inadequate  to  Meet  the 
Needs  of  Men,"  pamphlet.  S.  M.  Zwemer,  "Islam,  a  Challenge  to  Faith," 
Chap.  IV  and  VIII. 

'T.  L.  Pennell,  "Among  the  Wild  Tribes  of  the  Afghan  Frontier," 
114- 1 1 7,  124,  140. 

'Ibid,  230. 

*Ibid.  124. 

"C.  H.  A.  Field,  "The  Religion  of  the  Pathans,"  Church  Missionary 
Review,  August,   1908,  460. 


RELIGIOUS   CONDITIONS  147 

have  power  to  excommunicate  a  whole  neighborhood  by 
refusing  to  perform  burial  rites  or  weddings,  etc.  They 
hold  the  keys  of  Paradise  for  every  Moslem,  by  watching 
over  his  faithfulness  in  fulfilling  the  ritual  of  their  creed 
and  punishing  violations  with  rigor. 

In  Central  Asia  and  Afghanistan,  men  are  often  flogged 
for  breaking  the  fast.^  They  are  proud  of  their  fanati- 
cism ;  the  very  sight  of  a  Christian  is  so  obnoxious  to 
the  typical  old-fashioned  mullah  that  he  spits  on  the 
ground  when  they  pass  him  on  the  street,  and  to  kill  one 
of  them  in  Afghanistan  is  meritorious.^  To  what  length 
Islam  carries  this  doctrine  to-day,  even  in  a  land  like 
Egypt,  was  evident  from  the  official  opinion  of  the 
present  Mufti  of  Cairo  in  the  case  of  the  assassin  War- 
dani.^ 

The  immorality  of  the  religious  leaders  in  Islam  is  often 
an  oflFence — even  to  Moslems.  In  Baluchistan  immorality 
is  so  common  among  the  Moslem  clergy  that  syphilis 
is  spoken  of  as  the  ''Mullah's  disease,"*  while  the  Amir 
of  Afghanistan  was  greatly  offended  by  the  gross  prac- 
tices of  the  priesthood  in  Kabul  and  publicly  punished 

*Sven  Hedin,  "Through  Asia,"  Vol.  1,  470.  F.  A.  Martin,  "Under  the 
Absolute  Amir,"  276. 

'Ibid.,   267,   270. 

•The  sentence  of  death  for  the  murder  of  the  prime  minister,  Butrus 
Pasha,  the  Copt,  was  submitted  to  the  Mufti  for  confirmation.  He  solemnly 
put  it  upon  record  that  his  sanction  of  the  death  sentence  was  impossible 
for  three  reasons:  The  first  was  that  as  Mohammed  had  not  foreseen  and 
provided  against  the  case  of  murder  by  a  revolver  no  legal  sentence  was 
possible;  secondly,  "the  murder  of  a  non-Moslem  by  a  Moslem  is  not  a 
murder  within  the  eye  of  the  law  and  not  punishable  by  death";  thirdly, 
the  relatives  of  Butrus  Pasha  and  not  the  government  should  bring  charge 
against  the  culprit.  "The  Egyptian  Prime  Minister  has  been  brutally  and 
aimlessly  murdered,  and  to  complete  the  picture  the  principal  religious 
official  in  the  country  has  openly  called  upon  the  fanaticism  of  his  Moham- 
medan compatriots  in  an  attempt  to  save  the  murderer  from  punishment."— 
London  Daily  Telegraph,  June  11,  1910. 

*J    L.  Barton  and  others,  "The  Mohammedan  World  of  To-day,"  140. 


I4B  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

them.^  They  stoop  to  lying  and  fraud  to  win  favor 
or  work  miracles,^  and  not  only  tolerate  saint-worship  so 
foreign  to  the  real  spirit  of  Islam  but  often  inculcate  it. 

It  is  related  of  the  Zaka  Kheyl  tribe  among  the  Afridis 
that,  having  been  taunted  by  another  tribe  for  not  pos- 
sessing the  shrine  of  any  holy  man,  they  enticed  one  to 
visit  their  country,  and  at  once  dispatched  and  buried 
him,  and  boast  to  this  day  of  their  assiduity  in  worship- 
ing at  his  sepulchre.^ 

If  such  conditions  are  possible  under  Islam,  we  can  well 
imagine  the  character  and  power  of  the  priesthood  in 
darkest  Pagan  Africa  or  among  the  pagan  tribes  of 
Malaysia.  There,  too,  the  sheep  are  scattered  and 
harassed.  The  shepherds  feed  themselves  and  not  the 
flock.* 

The  religious  conditions  in  Kordofan  are  typical. 
Among  the  pagan  tribes  the  kugus,  or  head  priests,  whose 
power  is  almost  absolute,  rule  the  people.  They  act  as 
mediators  between  the  Arros,  through  whom  the  Supreme 
God  rules  the  world,  and  the  people.  Their  influence  is 
therefore  enormous,  and  they  grow  rich  on  the  credulity 
of  the  pagans.^ 

The  bloody  initiation  rites  of  the  Shamans,  the  religious 
leaders  among  the  Buriats  of  Siberia,  their  alleged  power 
to  work  miracles  and  their  methods  of  deceiving  the 
people  are  described  by  Curtin.®  Their  chief  field  of 
action  is  soothsaying  with  the  shoulder-blades  of  sheep, 

*F.  A.  Martin,  "Under  the  Absolute  Amir,*'  270, 

»C.  H.  A.  Field,  "The  Religion  of  the  Pathans."  Church  Missionary 
Review,  August,  1908,  460. 

'C.  H.  A.  Field,  "The  Religion  of  the  Pathans,"  Church  Missionary  Re- 
view, August,  1908,  452. 

*Ezekiel,   Chapter  34. 

^"Notes  on  Kordofan  Province,"  Geographical  Journal,  March,  1910,  225.' 

»J.   Curtin,   "A  Journey  in  Southern  Siberia,"   103-115. 


RELIGIOUS   CONDITIONS  149 

sacrificing  horses  according  to  a  cruel  ritual  already 
described,  preparing  the  Ongons  or  household  gods,  and 
telling  Mongol  myths  to  intimidate  the  people.  Here, 
too,  the  blind  are  leading  the  blind  and  both  fall  into 
the  ditch/ 

It  is  perfectly  evident  from  all  the  above  that  neither 
among  lamas,  mullahs,  priests  nor  shamans  is  there  ade- 
quate religious  leadership  for  the  masses  in  the  unoccu- 
pied fields  of  the  world.  They  cannot  satisfy  by  their 
prayers  and  sacrifices  and  soothsaying.  The  unrest  of 
the  soul  finds  satisfaction  and  peace  only  in  Christ.  He 
is  the  desire  of  all  nations  and  of  every  heart. 

It  is  literally  true  even  for  the  present  life,  that  the 
only  hope  for  these  countries  is  in  the  Gospel.  Their 
condition  is  not  dififerent  from  that  which  once  obtained 
in  mission  fields  then  unoccupied,  where  now  the  true 
Light  shines  and  where,  within  a  single  generation,  not 
by  process  of  gradual  evolution,  but  by  the  supernatural 
power  of  the  Gospel,  the  environment  has  been  utterly 
changed,  the  whole  social  and  moral  life  uplifted  to  a 
higher  plane,  and  ten  thousand  lives  transformed  and 
transfigured  into  noble  character.  When  will  the  good 
news  come  to  these  also? 

Do  we  realize  that  the  peoples  and  tribes  of  the  unoc- 
cupied fields  of  the  world  are  still  living  in  the  era  B.  C.  ? 
They  have  a  right  to  the  Gospel  in  the  year  of  our  Lord 
1910 — our  Lord  who  said:  "Go  ye  into  all  the  world." 
If  He  were  with  us  on  earth,  would  He  not  go  to  them 
first?  Why  should  not  we?  Mindful  of  His  boundless 
compassion  and  unchanging  love  and  His  vision  of  a 
world  which  to  Him  has  no  antipodes,  because  His  king- 
dom has  no  frontier,  we  turn  involuntarily  to  the  prayer 

^Matt.   15:14. 


150  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION   FIELDS 

of  Asaph  the  psalmist  ;^  it  is  an  inspired  prayer  for  these 
neglected  lands: 

"O  God,  why  hast  thou  cast  them  off  forever?  Why 
doth  thine  anger  smoke  against  the  sheep  of  thy  pasture? 
Remember  thy  congregation  which  thou  hast  purchased 
of  old.  ...  Lift  up  thy  feet  unto  the  perpetual  desola- 
tions. .  .  .  Thou  hast  set  all  the  borders  of  the  earth. .  .  . 
O  deliver  not  the  soul  of  thy  turtledove  unto  the  multi- 
tude of  the  wicked:  forget  not  the  congregation  of  thy 
poor  for  ever. 

''Have  respect  unto  the  covenant:  for  the  dark  places 
of  the  earth  are  full  of  the  habitations  of  cruelty. 

"O  let  not  the  oppressed  return  ashamed:  let  the  poor 
and  needy  praise  thy  name. 

"Arise,  O  God,  plead  thine  own  cause;  remember  how 
the  foolish  man  reproacheth  thee  daily." 

^Psalm  74:1.  3.  17,  19-22. 


STRATEGIC   IMPORTANCE 


151 


"The  eyes  of  the  Christian  world  turn  as  instinctively  toward 
the  lands  closed  to  the  Gospel  in  this  missionary  age,  as  do  the 
eyes  of  a  conquering  army  toward  the  few  remaining  outposts  of 
the  enemy  which  withstand  the  victors  and  hinder  complete  vic- 
tory, without  which  the  Commander-in-chief  is  unable  to  close 
the  campaign." 

—John  R.  Muir,  Missionary  to  Tibet. 

"There  is  a  story  told  of  a  Frenchman,  who  asked  permission 
from  a  German  to  go  over  a  German  military  post.  'I  cannot 
allow  you  to  see  this  place,'  the  German  replied,  *you  are  a 
foreigner,  and  we  do  not  show  German  military  posts  to  foreign- 
ers.* Whereupon  the  Frenchman  whipped  out  a  map  he  had  in 
his  pocket,  and  said:  "It  may  interest  you,  monsieur,  then,  to 
see  that  I  have  here  on  my  map  of  your  fort,  not  only  tes  oeuvres 
positifs  ma,is  cLussi  les  oewores  projectifsJ*^ 

—Col.  G.  Wingate. 

"There  are  times  when  it  is  very  difficult  to  balance  the  com- 
peting claims  of  various  parts  of  the  Mission  field.  I  see  no 
difficulty  now.  .  .  .  Certain  parts  of  Africa  form  now,  in  mili- 
tary language,  the  objective,  and  are  the  strategical  positions 
of  the  great  Mission  field.  .  .  .  Parts  of  Africa  in  which  the 
Moslem  advance  is  imminent  have  for  the  present  a  preeminent 
claim.  The  absorption  of  Pagan  races  into  Islam  is  so  rapid 
and  continuous  that  in  a  few  years*  time  some  may  be  quite 
lost  to  us.'* 

— Canon  £.  Sell,  of  Madras. 


152 


Chapter  VI 
STRATEGIC   IMPORTANCE 

The  serious  question  may  be  raised  by  some  whether, 
after  all,  there  is  wisdom  in  expending  force  in  over- 
coming- the  difficulties  connected  with  most  of  these  un- 
occupied fields  which  have  passed  in  review  before  us, 
in  spite  of  their  sore  need  of  the  Gospel,  when  the 
missionary  forces  are  so  meager  and  so  sorely  needed 
in  countries  where  the  doors  are  wide  open  and  where 
there  is  not  only  perfect  access  but  where  the  fields  are 
dead  ripe  for  the  harvest. 

Why,  for  example,  should  efforts  be  made  to  enter 
Kordofan,  in  Africa,  or  Khorasan,  in  Persia,  when  there 
are  populations  as  large  in  Korea  easy  to  be  evangelized? 
Why  should  we  storm  the  gates  of  Tibet  or  Afghanistan, 
when  the  doors  of  China  are  wide  open,  and  the  people 
are  beckoning?  Does  real  missionary  strategy  call  for 
their  occupation  now?  Are  there  any  urgent  reasons 
why  these  lands  should  be  occupied,  in  view  of  the 
present  opportunities  in  other  fields? 

The  strategic  importance  of  the  unoccupied  fields  of 
the  world  can  best  be  considered  by  first  giving  the 
reasons  for  their  occupation  in  general,  and  then  point- 
ing out  why,  at  least,  some  of  the  fields  have  a  strategic 
importance  and  urgency  of  their  own. 

Their  present  spiritual  destitution,  their  social  dc^ada- 

153 


154  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION   FIELDS 

tion  and  the  age-long  neglect  of  all  these  countries,  are 
the  strongest  possible  arguments  for  their  occupation. 
The  pathos  of  all  these  millions  still  groping  restlessly  for 
the  True  Light,  finds  a  voice  in  the  record  of  many  trav- 
elers. 

Some  of  the  races  and  tribes  are  dying  out.  Now 
is  the  only  time  to  give  them  the  gospel.  "As  we  re- 
called all  our  interesting  experiences  among  the  Mois," 
writes  Mrs.  Vassal,  "we  could  not  but  regret  that  this 
race,  so  physically  line  in  character,  so  much  more  sym- 
pathetic than  the  Annamese,  should  be  destined  to  die 
out.     Yet  that  is  probably  their  fate.'" 

Others  are  strong  and  virile  races,  with  a  future 
before  them,  and  must,  I'lerefore,  be  won  for 
Christ.  "I  remember  the  rude  Mongols,"  says 
Colonel  Younghusband,  "far  away  in  the  midst 
of  the  Gobi  Desert,  setting  apai :,  r\  their  tents,  the 
little  altars  at  which  they  worshipped.  I  recall  nights 
spent  in  the  tents  of  the  wandering  Kirghiz,  when  the 
family  of  an  evening  would  say  their  prayers  together ; 
I  think  of  the  Afghan  and  Central  Asian  merchants  visit- 
ing me  at  Yarkand,  and  in  the  middle  of  their  visits  ask- 
ing to  be  excused,  while  they  laid  down  a  cloth  on  the 
floor  and  repeated  their  prayers;  of  the  late  Mehtar  of 
Chitral,  during  a  morning's  shooting  among  the  moun- 
tains, halting,  with  all  his  court,  for  a  few  moments  to 
pray;  and,  lastly,  of  the  wild  men  of  Hunza,  whom  I 
had  led  up  a  new  and  difficult  pass,  pausing  as  they 
reached  the  summit  to  offer  a  prayer  of  thanks,  and  end- 
ing with  the  shout  of  Allah !"-  And  this  is  only  one  testi- 
mony how  the  heart  of  Asia  is  thirsting  for  the  living 

*G.   M.   Vassal,   "On  and  OflF  Duty  in  Annam,"  274-375. 
«F.  E.  Younghusband,  "The  Heart  of  a  Continent,"  309, 


STRATEGIC   IMPORTANCE  155 

God.  Africa,  too,  is  waiting.  No  stronger  plea  is  pos- 
sible. Destitution  is  its  own  argument.  The  famine- 
stricken  call  for  the  Bread ;  those  groping  in  the  night 
for  the  Light ;  the  sick  for  the  Physician ;  the  dying  for 
the  Life;  and  those  in  chains  for  their  Deliverer.  There- 
fore, we  must  go.  "All  classes,  races,  and  conditions 
are  God's,"  says  Bishop  William  Boyd  Carpenter.  "No 
matter  with  what  color  the  colder  or  warmer  sun  may 
have  touched  their  faces,  no  matter  in  what  tongue  they 
express  their  sorrows,  no  matter  what  sad  hereditary 
taint  may  have  descended  upon  them,  no  matter  what 
low  and  grovelling  superstitions  may  be  their  intellectual 
inheritance,  no  matter  in  what  squalid  circumstances  they 
may  be  living,  no  matter  in  what  dark  surroundings  their 
character  may  be  formed,  no  matter  what  degradation, 
civilization,  or  the  want  of  civilization,  may  have  im- 
posed upon  them,  all  are  God's,  by  right  of  the  prophetic 
declaration,  'All  souls  are  Mine.'  "^  Shall  we  give  Him, 
His  own ! 

Moreover,  Christ's  command  is  universal  and  we  can- 
not tell  beforehand  the  strategic  importance  of  an  indi- 
vidual soul  or  of  a  particular  country.  Who  could  have 
foretold  the  strategic  importance  of  Great  Britain  in  God's 
world  program,  when  the  Irish  missionaries  landed  at 
lona  in  563  A.  D.  ?-  Or  fifty  years  ago,  who  would  have 
prophesied  the  strategy  of  Korea  for  the  evangelization 
of  Asia  or  of  Uganda  for  Africa? 

^Quoted  by  J.  S.  Dennis  in  "Christian  Missions  and  Social  Progrcsq," 
Vol.   III.   576. 

'"Oh,  you  blue-eyed  and  fair-haired  men  and  women,"  said  Maltbie  D. 
Babcock,  "proud  of  your  Scotch  and  Irish  and  German  blood,  remember 
and  honor  Augustine,  Paulinus,  Patricius,  Columba,  Callus,  foreign  mis- 
sionaries who  went  out  years  ago  to  the  pag-ans  of  the  North,  our  ancestors, 
and  preached  to  them  the  gospel  of  Christ.  We  are  heirs  of  their  sacrifice; 
our  knowledge  of  Christ  is  their  gift  to  us." 


156 


THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 


The  angel  of  God  as  In  the  days  of  the  apostles 
still  calls  men  to  turn  away  from  white  harvest  fields 
and  go  toward  the  desert,  even  as  he  called  Philip  to 
leave  Samaria  and  minister  to  a  single  man  who,  in  the 
divine  purpose,  was  to  carry  the  Gospel  to  the  Ethiopians.^ 
Of  each  unoccupied  area,  as  of  each  human  soul,  one  may 
say  with  Browning: 

"Thoughts  hardly  to  be  packed 

Into  a  narrow  act, 
Fancies  that  broke  through  language  and  escaped ; 

All  I  could  never  be, 

All  men  ignored  in  me, 
This,  I  was  worth  to  God,  whose  wheel  the  pitcher  shaped." 

The  story  of  the  unoccupied  mission  fields  is  a  story 
not  only  of  lost  opportunities,  but  also  of  unrecognized 
possibilities.^ 

There  is  a  general  reason,  why  we  should  occupy  these 
fields,  which  may  well  be  mentioned  in  passing.  It  will  ap- 

^Acts  8:26-40.  The  whole  incident  is  evidence  of  the  strategic  importance 
of  the  individual  and  of  the  value  of  the  apparently  insignificant  in  God's 
plans  for  the  kingdom. 

^Here  is  the  testimony  of  a  traveler  regarding  the  pagan  tribes  of  the 
Sudan:  "The  natives  of  Australia  are  low  in  the  human  scale,  and,  apart 
from  the  almost  bestial  powers  which  they  share  with  the  bushman,  they 
are  merely  undevelopable.  No  one  who  has  come  into  touch  with  a  Dinka 
or  Nuer  who  has  had  the  benefit  of  contact  with  a  higher  civilization,  could 
say  so  of  him.  Farag  Effendi  Abu  Zet,  now  resident  near  Singa,  is  an  ex- 
ample; a  born  soldier,  he  is  covered  with  decorations,  was  promoted  on  the 
field  to  his  rank  of  Bimbashi  for  his  extraordinary  bravery,  and,  retired  on 
account  of  v.ounds,  now  finds  peace  as  profitable  as  war.  They  are  not 
undevelopable,  but  simply  man  in  the  raw  state,  perhaps  nearly  as  God 
created  him  in  the  first  instance,  and  just  unadvanced.  The  Nuers  are 
likely  to  remain  in  this  condition  until  circumstances  develop  which  one 
cannot  with  certainty  foresee;  only  drainage  will  render  it  possible  to  break 
down  the  barriers  which  the  character  of  their  country  imposes  against 
fuller  communication  with  the  outside  world,  and  though  the  first  step  in 
this  direction  is  being  taken,  it  is  difficult  to  estimate  what  is  involved."— 
H.  L.  Tangye,  "In  the  Torrid  Sudan,"   154. 


STRATEGIC    IMl'UKTANCh:  157 

peaJ  to  all  who  hope  for  the  speedy  return  of  our  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ.  We  remember  how  He  Himself  taught 
us:  "And  this  Gospel  of  the  Kingdom  shall  be  preached 
in  all  the  world  for  a  witness  unto  all  nations,  and  then 
shall  the  end  come."^  This  thought  has  been  an  inspira- 
tion to  many  a  lonely  worker  on  the  outskirts  of  the  King- 
dom, and  breathes  in  all  our  church  hymnody : 

"He  comes  again;  O  Zion.  ere  thou  meet  Him. 

Make  known  to  every  heart  His  saving  grace ; 
Let  none  whom  He  hath  ransomed  fail  to  greet  Him, 
Through  thy  neglect,  unfit  to  see  His  face." 

In  the  beautiful  hymn  beginning,  "Lord  Thy  ran- 
somed Church  is  waking,"  the  same  thought  occurs  as 
the  climax  of  all  its  petition : 

"Set  on  fire  our  heart's  devotion 

With  the  love  of  Thy  dear  Name; 
Till  o'er  every  land  and  ocean. 

Lips  and  lives  Thy  Cross  proclaim, 
Fix  our  eyes  on  Thy  returning, 

Keeping  watch  till  Thou  shalt  come. 
Loins  well  girt,  lamps  brightly  burning; 

Then,  Lord,  take  Thy  servants  home." 

There  is  another  reason.  Christ's  glory  is  concerned 
in  the  occupation  of  all  the  fields.  Because  He  is 
Lord  of  all,  the  last  stronghold  of  the  waiting  world  must 
be  occupied  for  Him.  We  need  the  spirit  of  loyalty, 
and  the  soldier  of  the  Cross  should  have  as  keen  a  sense 
of  Christian  honor  as  the  soldier  of  the  empire. 
"Throughout  the  expedition,"  says  Colonel  Younghus- 
band.  "we  felt  that  our  national  honor  was  at  stake,  and 

'Matt.    ^:i4. 


158  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

down  to  the  latest- joined  sepoy  we  bent  ourselves  to  up- 
hold and  raise  higher  the  dignity  of  our  Sovereign  and 
the  good  name  of  our  country ;  to  show  that  not  even 
the  rigors  of  a  Tibetan  winter,  nor  the  obstinacy  and 
procrastination  of  the  two  most  stolid  nations  in  the  world 
could  deter  us  from  our  purpose ;  above  all,  to  try  to 
effect  that  purpose  without  resorting  to  force. "^ 

In  entering  the  unoccupied  fields,  we  know  that  we 
are  entering  the  King's  own  country.  We  cannot  win 
the  world  for  Christ.  He  won  it  for  Himself  by  His 
incarnation,  and  paid  for  it  by  His  death.  ''The  earth  is 
the  Lord's  and  the  fullness  thereof." 

More  than  that.  In  some  countries,  His  name  is  now 
unknown  where  once  He  was  acknowledged  and  wor- 
shipped. This  is  true  of  Central  Asia,  of  Arabia,  and  of 
North  Africa. 

"The  countries  of  Central  Asia,  to  the  west  and  north 
of  India,  are  a  challenge  and  reproach  to  the  Christian 
Church,"  says  Dr.  Pennell ;  "a  reproach,  because  in  the 
early  centuries  of  the  Christian  era,  the  Gospel  was  car- 
ried right  across  Turkistan  and  Tibet  to  China,  and 
Christian  churches  flourished  from  Asia  Minor  to  Mon- 
golia. ...  In  again  proclaiming  the  Gospel,  in  Turkistan, 
the  Christian  Church  will  only  be  re-occupying  her  lost 
territories  where,  at  one  time,  Christian  congregations 
gathered  in  their  churches,  but  for  centuries,  only  the 
Mohammedan  call  to  prayer  has  been  permitted  to  be 
heard."2 

Sven  Hedin  even  found  Christian  medals  in  the  ruins 
about  distant  Khotan, — a  miniature  angel  of  gold,  crosses 
and  Byzantine  gold  coins.    "God  grant,"  he  writes,  "that 

ip.  Landon,  "The  Opening  of  Tibet,"  introduction,   11. 

*T.  L.  Pennell,  "Among  the  Wild  Tribes  of  the  Afghan  Frontier,"  306. 


l-rotn  /.<i//. /.'».<     "Across  ll'idcst  .-ifnco."  Scnhucr 

WOMAN    AXl)    C  IIllJ)Ri:.\,    llMlilCTU 


i  ill-:     \  i-.l  l.i.i)     Mi;.\     n|-     I  lAKlj. 
(See   pages    159,    160.) 


158 


STRATEGIC    IMPORTANCE  159 

the  time  may  come  when,  within  those  very  ancient  walls, 
which  have  witnessed  the  successive  supremacy  of  the 
three  predominant  reHgions  of  the  world,  the  Cross  shall 
supplant  the  Crescent  even  as  Gautama's  temple  was 
formerly  leveled  with  the  ground  before  the  green  banner 
of  the  Prophet."^  Who  will  answer  this  prayer  of  the 
intrepid  traveler  by  going  to  Khotan  ? 

The  loss  of  all  North  Africa  is  a  well-known  story,  but 
it  may  interest  some  to  learn  that  the  torrid  Sudan,  as 
well  as  Southern  Egypt,  was  once  Christian,  and  the 
remains  of  many  churches  exist  to  this  day,  notably  at 
Magaa  and  Soba.* 

For  thirteen  centuries,  after  Mohammed's  successors 
blotted  out  Christianity  in  Nejran,  Yemen  and  Socotra, 
Arabia  did  not  hear  the  message  of  Life.  At  Sana,  the 
ruins  of  the  Cathedral  of  Abraha,  built  in  567  A.  D. 
were  used  for  a  Turkish  cavalry  stable,  when  I  visited 
the  city.  In  Hadramaut,  there  are  inscriptions  that  tell 
of  a  Christ  who  is  known  no  longer.  In  Socotra,  on 
the  hill  Ditrerre,  of  the  Hamar  Range,  "a  perfect  mass 
of  crosses,"  of  every  possible  shape,  is  carved,  perhaps 
to  mark  a  Christian  burial-ground.^  Alas !  neither  the 
hill  tribes  of  Yemen,  nor  the  people  of  Socotra,  nor  the 
province  of  Hadramaut,  have  a  single  living  witness  for 
the  Crucified  to-day.  The  Tuaregs  of  the  Sahara,  as 
well  as  the  Kabyles  of  North  Africa,  still  have  customs 
and  signs  to  show  that  they  once  were  Christians.  "Even 
now,  the  Tuaregs  bear  the  sign  of  the  Cross  on  their 
saddles  and  on  their  daggers,  swords  and  shields."'' 


*Sven  Hcdin,  "Through  Asia,"  Vol.  IT,  771,  77^. 

"H.  L.  Tangyc,  "In  the  Torrid  Sudan,"  28,  29. 

•T.   Bent,  "Southern   Arabia,"   Appendix,   London,   1900. 

*H.  Vischer,  "Across  the  Sahara,"   168. 


l6o  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MIS3I0N  FIELDS 

One  of  the  most  typical,  yet  strange  habits  of  the 
Tuareg  is  the  wearing  of  a  veil  over  the  face,  which  has 
gained  them  the  Arabic  name  of  Ahel-el-litham  or  "people 
of  the  veil,"  or  cl  Molathemin,  ''the  veiled."  This  veil 
is  worn  at  all  times  by  the  Tuareg,  and  they  never  re- 
move it  either  to  eat  or  sleep,  when  at  home  or  on  a 
journey.  Only  the  eyes  are  visible,  the  other  parts  of 
the  face  being  hidden  by  the  turban  and  by  the  litham} 

This  strange  tribe  of  warrior  nomads,  going  about 
with  veiled  faces,  well  represents  the  way  in  which  the 
veil  of  Islam  has  hidden  the  glory  of  the  Christ  and  the 
radiance  of  His  Gospel,  which  once  they  knew.  If  Christ 
is  to  be  crowned  Lord  of  all,  we  must  carry  His  Gospel 
back  into  those  regions,  where  He  has  been  dethroned 
by  the  Pretender. 

In  addition  to  all  these  general  reasons  for  the  occu- 
pation of  the  unoccupied  fields,  many  of  them  have  a 
strategic  importance  of  their  own. 

There  are  strategic  races,  places,  classes,  and  times. 
This  is  true  not  only  of  such  lands  as  Japan ;  China  and 
India,  but  of  certain  unoccupied  fields  as  well.^  Some  of 
the  races  in  the  lands  unoccupied,  such  as  Hausas  and 
Swahelis  in  Africa,  and  the  Arabs  in  Western  Asia,  have 
already  had,  or  are  destined  to  have  large  influence  be- 
yond their  own  borders.  The  occupation  of  places,  such 
as  Mecca  and  Lhasa,  would,  if  possible,  be  high  mission- 
ary strategy.^  All  large  centers  of  population  are  of 
strategic  value  to  their  outlying  territory. 

^M.  Benhazera,  "Six  Mois  chez  les  Touareg  du  Ahaggar,"  un  vol.  in-8, 
ill..  XXVIII-233. 

^Regarding  the  stratepc  importance  and  the  present  urgency  of  all  the 
principal  mission  fields  there  is  no  stronger  testimony  than  that  given  by 
John  R.   Mott   in   "The  Decisive  Hour  of  Christian   Missions." 

'"Thirteen  centuries  ago  Mohammed  marched  on  Mecca  with  10,000  men 
j«nd  transformed  it  from  the  stronghold  of  Arabian  idolatry  into  a  world- 


STRATEGIC    IMPORTANCE 


i6i 


Again,  no  one  can  doubt  the  strategic  importance  of 
evangelizing  certain  special  classes  like  the  Moslems 
of  Asiatic  Russia  and  of  Western  China,  when  we  re- 
member the  part  this  very  class  of  the  population  has 
already  played  in  the  history  of  Central  Asia,  and  more 
recently  in  China.* 

Regarding  the  danger  of  Moslem  advance  among  the 
Russians,  Mrs.  Sophie  Bobrovnikoff  writes,  in  a  recent 
article:  "The  spirit  of  militant  fanaticism  is  very  strong 
among  the  Moslems.  Every  simple,  untaught  Moslem  is 
a  missionary  of  his  religion,  and  the  poor,  dark,  untaught 
heathen  or  half-heathen  tribes  cannot  resist  this  force. 
In  many  baptized  aboriginal  villages,  the  men  go  away 
for  the  winter  to  work  as  tailors  in  Moslem  villages. 
There  they  are  taught  and  fanaticized,  and  when  they 
return  into  their  villages  they  bring  with  them  Moslem 
ideas  and  influence  their  homes. 

"When  a  village  gets  under  Moslem  influence,  the  first 
step  is  to  leave  off  wearing  belts.  The  Russian  peasant 
always  wears  a  belt  over  his  shirt,  and  the  baptized 
aborigines  assume  this  habit.  The  Tartars  wear  no  belts, 
and  when  in  a  baptized  village  you  see  the  men  without 
belts,  you  must  understand  it  as  a  first  step  toward  Islam. 
The  second  step  is  the  shaving  of  the  head  (the  Russians 
and  the  baptized  aborigines  cut  their  hair,  the  Moslems 

wide  place  of  pilgrimage  and  the  radiating  center  of  Islam.  It  was  his 
keen  strategy  and  the  devotion  of  his  followers  that  enabled  him  to  do  it. 
Had  we  but  1,000  men,  equally  devoted  to  Jesus  Christ,  whose  energies 
might  be  centered  on  this  one  city,  might  not  Mecca  be  conquered  for 
Chnst?  And  if  Mecca  became  a  truly  Christian  city  breathing  the  spirit 
of  love  and  aflame  with  the  fire  of  Pentecost,  what  might  not  happen  in 
the  conversion  of  the  pilgrims  who  by  duty  and  decree  flock  to  it  in  thou- 
sands every  year?  Might  it  not  become  in  turn  a  radiating  center  of  the 
love  of  Christ."— Devotion  and  Strategy  in  Foreign  Missions.— Rev.  G.  T. 
Manley,  M.  A.,  Church  Missionary  Review,  February,  1910,  93. 
»M.  Broomhall,  "Islam  in  China,"  passim. 


l62  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

shave  it),  and  the  wearing  of  the  small  round  Moslem 
cap.  When  a  village  has  reached  that  degree,  the  winning 
back  of  it  to  Christianity  is  almost  hopeless.  The  build- 
ing of  a  church  only  excites  the  people  to  accept  Islam 
entirely.  They  begin  to  keep  Fridays  instead  of  Sundays, 
then  they  get  a  Mullah,  build  a  mosque,  and  the  trans- 
formation is  complete."^  Surely  nothing  need  be  added 
to  emphasize  the  strategic  importance  of  the  unoccupied 
fields  in  Russia  and  Bokhara.  Those  who  are  on  the 
ground  realize  the  danger  and  the  immense  issues  at 
stake. 

"What  would  we  think  of  a  General,"  writes  Mission- 
ary Hogberg,  "going  to  war,  who  paid  most  attention 
to  the  weak  force  of  the  enemy,  trying  to  omit  the  main 
force.  I  believe,  brethren,  that  Islam  is  the  main  force, 
to  which  we  must  pay  a  certain  attention,  and  open  a 
well-planned  and  organized  crusade. 

"If  Christianity  does  not,  in  due  time,  take  up  this 
missionary  question  and  go  in  for  real  w^ork,  a  time  may 
come  when  men  like  Tamerlane  will  blow  the  trumpet 
and  get  the  Moslems  to  stand  up  for  a  holy  war  and 
move  the  whole  stock  of  300  millions  from  the  east 
of  Africa  to  the  great  ocean,  and  there  will  be  bloodshed 
so  terrible  that  something  similar  to  it  v/ill  not  have  been 
known  before  in  the  history  of  the  world. "^  Shall  Islam 
dominate  Central  Asia  unchallenged? 

Speaking  at  Bolan,  Baluchistan,  when  the  Quetta  Mis- 
sion was  founded,  Rev.  Robert  Clark,  of  the  Church  Mis- 
sionary Society,  used  these  words :  "We  are  standing  on 
the  ground  which  has  been  traversed  by  many  invaders, 

^The  Moslem   World  Quarterly  Rcriezv,   London,    Vol.    I,   No.    i. 
^'At  the  World  Missionary  Conference,   Edinburgh,   loio,  paper  on   Central 
Asia. 


STRATEGIC    IMPORTANCE  I63 

who  have  poured  their  hordes  down  from  the  steppes  of 
Central  Asia,  tlirough  the  passes  of  the  Bolan  and  the 
Khaibar,  on  their  w  ay  to  found  empires  in  India.  We  see 
around  us  tribes  of  which  it  is  said  'that  whosover  rules 
them  holds  the  crown  of  India  in  his  grasp,  if  it  is  not  al- 
ready in  his  hand.'  And  now,  the  Gospel  of  Christ  and,  we 
hope,  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  goes  forth  to  wm  these  great 
nomadic  tribes,  to  use  them  in  spiritual  work,  as  already 
many  of  them  have  been  used  in  temporal  matters.  We 
want  to  utilize  these  people  to  bear  the  flag  of  Christ 
throughout  Central  Asia,  to  set  up  the  banner  which 
Christ  Himself  has  given  to  be  displayed  because  of 
truth."^ 

The  strategic  importance  of  Afghanistan,  politically, 
is  well  known  and  is  referred  to  by  Lacoste  and  many  other 
travelers.  It  is  one  of  the  centers  of  Asiatic  politics, 
and  has  pivotal  importance.  "Situated  between  Russian 
Turkistan  and  British  India,  bristling  with  formidable 
mountains,  rent  with  deep  gorges,  Afghanistan  holds  the 
command  of  all  routes,  and  of  every  pass,  and  opens 
and  shuts  every  door."-  If  this  is  true  politically,  is  it 
not  true  also,  at  least  in  a  measure,  in  the  winning  of 
Central  Asia? 

The  policy  of  Russian  advance  in  Central  Asia,  as  ex- 
pressed in  the  famous  circular  dispatch  of  Prince  Gort- 
chakow,  admits  "that  the  position  of  Russia  in  Central 
Asia  is  that  of  all  civilized  states  which  are  brought  into 
contact  with  half  savage,  nomad  populations  possessing 
no  fixed  social  organization.  .  .  .  With  the  object  not  of 
extending  beyond  all  reasonable  bounds  the  regions  under 
uur  august  master's  sceptre,  but  in  giving  a  solid  basis 

^"Baluchistan,"   Church  Missionary  Review,  December,    1908    737 
'B,  de  Lacoste,  "Around  Afghanistan,"   Preface,   12. 


I64  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

to  his  rule  in  guaranteeing  their  security  and  in  de- 
veloping their  social  organization,  their  commerce,  their 
well-being  and  their  civilization. "^  If  this  official  ex- 
pression of  the  real  purpose  of  Russia  in  Central  Asia 
be  still  true,  then  missions  surely  have  a  strong  claim  to 
recognition.  The  recent  rapprochement  of  Russia  and 
Great  Britain,  and  the  new  demarcation  of  their  respective 
spheres  of  influence  in  Persia,  will,  doubtless,  lead  to 
mutual  understanding,  and  may  yet  throw  open  wide 
even  the  doors  of  Afghanistan  for  the  proclamation  of 
the  Gospel. 

If  some  lands  invite  the  missionary  because  of  their 
accessibility,  there  are  others  which  remind  us  that  neglect 
may  mean  not  only  the  losing  of  the  opportunity,  but 
the  possibility  of  the  creation  of  new  dangers  and  diffi- 
culties. Islam  grew  out  of  a  neglected  field.  This  is  a 
startling  fact.  When  we  remember  what  took  place  in 
Mecca,  in  622  A.  D.,  is  it  wise  and  safe  strategy  to  leave 
the  great  historic  cities  of  Samarkand  and  Tashkend, 
Khokan  and  Andijan,  in  Russian  Turkistan,  of  Turf  an 
and  Hami,  Aksu  and  Khotan,  in  Chinese  Turkistan,  of 
Kabul  and  Balkh,  Herat  and  Kandahar  in  Afghanistan, 
of  Lhasa  and  Shigatse,  Gartok  and  Selipuk,  in  Tibet, 
without  a  missionary? 

Kafiristan,  one  of  the  five  provinces  of  Afghanistan,  is 
a  sad  example  of  lost  opportunity.  "It  was  a  sorrowful 
day  for  them,"  writes  Colonel  G.  Wingate,  "when,  by 
a  stroke  of  the  pen  in  the  British  Foreign  Office,  eleven 
years  ago,  their  country  was  brought  within  the  bound- 
aries of  Afghanistan.  At  last,  the  Kafirs  were  the  sub- 
jects of  the  Amir.  In  consultation  with  Ghulam  Haider, 
his  commander-in-chief,  he  determined  to  convert  them 

^A.  Hamilton,  "Afghanistan,"  Appendix,  493-497. 


STRATEGIC    nf  PORTA  NCR  165 

and  bring-  them  into  the  fold  of  Islam.  The  distasteful 
offices  of  the  mullah  were  offered  at  the  muzzle  of  the 
breech-loader,  the  rites  of  the  Mohammedan  belief  were 
enforced  upon  an  unwilling  people,  mosques  took  the 
place  of  temples,  the  Koran  and  the  traditions  of  the 
Caliphate  would  be  the  spiritual  regeneration  of  the  pagan 
Kafir.  Yet,  twenty-five  years  ago,  a  message  from  the 
Kafirs  of  the  Hindu  Kush  stirred  the  Christian  Church ; 
they  asked  that  teachers  might  be  sent  to  instruct  them 
in  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  a  sad  example  of 
how  an  opportunity  may  be  lost,  for  to-day  there  is 
imposed,  between  the  ambassador  of  Jesus  Christ  and 
the  eager  Kafir,  the  hostile  aggression  of  a  Mohammedan 
power  intensely  jealous  of  the  entrance  of  the  foreigner."^ 
And  again,  "The  unsparing  proselytism  of  Mohammedan 
conquest  has  done  its  worst.  Hearths  and  homes  in  their 
mountain  fastnesses,  which  had  been  preserved  inviolate 
for  one  thousand  years,  against  the  hated  Mussulman 
foe,  have  been  ruthlessly  invaded  and  spoiled.  The 
bravest  of  their  defenders  have  been  forcibly  made  into 
Mohammedans,  and  the  fairest  of  their  daughters  have 
been  torn  from  the  arms  of  their  natural  protectors  and 
carried  off  as  new  supplies  for  the  harems  of  their  con- 
querors."^  Shall  the  story  of  Kafiristan  be  repeated  in 
other  parts  of  Asia? 

And  there  is  urgency.  The  unoccupied  fields  of  the 
world  are  being  entered  by  civilization,  and  railways  are 
pushing  their  way  through  the  heart  of  both  continents.' 
The  advertisement  of  these  highways  in  Asia  and  Africa 

*G.  VVin^te,  "Unevangelized  Regions  in  Central  Asia,"  The  Missionary 
Review  of  the  World,  May,  1907. 

■G.  Wingate  in  T.  L.  Pennell's  "Among  the  Wild  Tribes  of  the  Afghan 
Frontier."  308. 

•John  R.  Mott,  "The  Decisive  Hour  of  Christian   Missions,"  9,  23,  24. 


l66  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

is  in  itself  a  challenge  to  missions.  It  is,  therefore,  the 
strategic  hour.  In  Nigeria,  the  railway,  already  con- 
structed from  Lagos  to  Ilorin,  is  under  construction  to 
Zungeru,  and  is  perhaps  to  have  branch  lines  to  Baro 
on  the  south  and  Kano  on  the  north. 

Near  Cape  Verde,  Senegal,  the  French  are  building  a 
great  city,  which,  in  a  few  years,  will  be  the  finest  city 
on  the  west  coast,  with  piers  and  elaborate  docks.  It 
will  not  be  long  before  railroads  connect  this  coming 
metropolis  with  the  rich  country  beyond  French  West 
Africa.*  The  Cape  to  Cairo  route  is  no  longer  a  dream, 
but  is  approaching  accomplishment.- 

The  two  German  and  the  two  Russian  railways  now 
progressing  toward  the  Indian  Ocean,  and  the  English 
railroads  pushing  onward  in  northwestern  India, 
prove  the  importance  of  the  present  hour  for  advance 
in  Central  Asia.  Between  the  terminus  of  the  British 
railroads  in  India,  and  the  Russian  Railroad,  on  the 
borders  of  Afghanistan,  there  is  lacking  only  438  miles 
to  bind  the  southernmost  part  of  Asia  to  Europe  by  rail. 
If  England  and  Russia  would  forget  their  jealousies 
and  join  hands  across  these  four  hundred  odd  miles  of 
Afghanistan  mountain  land,  one  could  travel  from  Paris 
to  Bombay,  a  distance  of  approximately  5,000  miles, 
in  just  eight  days.^ 

In  regard  to  the  strategy  of  Chinese  Turkistan,  in 
this  respect,  Ivlissionary  G.  Raquette  writes  from 
Yarkand : 

*A.  H.  S.  Landor,  "Across  Widest  Africa,"  National  Geographic  Magaeine, 
July,  1910,  736. 

*"Every  year  sees  progress,  and  the  extension  of  the  railway  over  the 
blue  Nile  and  up  to  Sennaar,  with  the  bridging  of  the  white  Nile  at  Hillet 
Abbas  for  the  tapping  of  Kordofan,  tightens  the  grip  of  the  white  man  for 
the  welfare  of  the  country."— H.  L.  Tangye,  "In  the  Torrid  Sudan,"  289. 

'E.  A.   Powell,  Everybody's  Magaeine,   February,   1910,   205. 


A    SK^  -(    Iv  \  I'l    K    I  \    AK  \  1       \ 


The  <luik"s  lunisc  at   Makallah,  the  chief  sea|»)rt    <>f    Hndramnut.     \'i-.itc«l    only    twici 
by  missionaries  within  the  nasi   twenty    years. 


SUDAN  GOVERNMENT  RAILWAYS 

OAIRO     XO     KHARTOUM. 

\  ia    the    Picturesque    Nil.*    Route  and    Sudan  (iu\erinnent   kailwa\>  in  4  days. 
*^(«K/V/,'**       ^  i^  Suez.   Port  Sudan,  and  Sudan  (iu\erninciit  Railways  in  3;  da>j<. 


P»MnKcr>  can   ohuin   ticl»-f»  coakling  ihtra 


South   by  oat  rouU  aixl 


North   hy   »ht  othr 


COnrORTABLE    TRAVEL    l!N    THE    5UDAIN. 


lEUctri 


!flew     ani     luxurious     Sleeping     ani>     "PlnlRfl     ddrj.     with      up-lo-^jti 
"li^htma.   X'onttlatin^.  ani'   CooUn^   "^pfaralu*. 
-     -        CATERING     OF    THE     HIGHEST     ORDER. 

.SIDAX     KXl'RESS    AD\  i  K  I  i -1 M  KNT 

Advertisement  of  travel  in  the  Sudan,  taken  from  a  London  paper. 
The  contrast  is  evident  between  the  possibihties  of  travel  to-day  in  this 
part  of  Africa  and  that  shown  in  the  picture  on  page  70  of  the  caravan 
crossing  the  Sahara.  Khartoum  is  nearer  London  to-day  than  Cairo  was 
m  the  days  of   Livingstone.  166 


I 


STRATEGIC    IMPORTANCE:  167 

"There  can  scarcely  be  any  place  with  a  Mohammedan 
population  in  the  world,  where  a  Christian  Mission  can 
be  carried  on  so  freely  as  in  Chinese  Turkistan.  The 
missionaries  and  their  work  are  imder  the  protection  of 
the  Chinese  authorities,  according  to  treaties,  just  as  in 
China  proper.  The  Mohammedans  might  try,  by  in- 
trigues and  sometimes  by  empty  threats,  but  they  have 
got  no  power  to  put  any  obstacles  in  the  way,  which 
cannot,  with  patience,  be  overcome.  The  Mohammedans 
of  this  country  are  not  at  all  so  fanatical  as  those  in 
other  places,  where  the  people  are  more  in  touch  with 
a  non-Christian  civilization.  But  that  kind  of  civilization 
is  approaching  rather  rapidly,  both  from  the  East  and 
from  the  West. 

"People  of  some  importance  have  taken  to  sending  their 
children  to  Western  Turkistan  or  Russia  for  education. 
After  two  or  three  years,  those  young  men,  as  a  rule, 
come  back  as  unbelievers  or  full  of  Mohammedan 
fanaticism.  //  Christian  missions  zvere  at  hand  just  now, 
with  proper  and  sufficient  means,  the  approaching  flood 
of  a  neiv  civilization  could,  at  least  to  a  great  extent, 
be  turned  in  the  right  direction.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  is  also  a  non-religious  Chinese  culture  approaching 
in  the  form  of  new  Chinese  schools  opened  at  every  place 
of  any  importance.  A  time  is  at  hand  when  the  non- 
Christian  culture,  from  the  East  and  from  the  West, 
shall  meet  here  and  fight  a  great  battle  concerning  the 
price  of  these  poor  peoples'  souls.  At  the  time  of  such 
fight,  between  the  old  and  the  new  state  of  things,  the 
banner  of  the  cross  should  be  a  refuge  for  the  best  ele- 
ments amongst  the  people.  I  believe  that  this  field  has 
not  had  its  time  before  now,  but  now  a  new  time  is 
at  hand,  and  a  great  change  will  take  place  during  the 


l68  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

next  ten  or  twenty  years  with  or  without  Christian 
influence.  If  the  floodtide  is  allowed  to  pass  without  the 
influence  of  Christ,  it  is  impossible  to  foresee  the  result. 
One  thing  is  certain :  the  Church  will  have  lost  one  of 
the  best  opportunities  she  has  ever  had  in  the  Moham- 
medan world. "^ 

The  thousand  miles  of  railway,  built  for  pilgrims,  and 
>  not  for  dividends,  all  the  way  from  Damascus  to  Medina 
and  on  to  Mecca,  is  sure  to  call  attention  to  the  strategic 
importance  of  Arabia  to-day  as  a  mission  field.^  Geo« 
graphically,  the  peninsula  lies  at  the  crossroads  of  the 
commerce  of  the  world.  It  was  once  the  bridge  between 
Asia  and  Europe,  the  causeway  between  Asia  and  Africa, 
and  will  soon  be  such  again.  The  importance  of  the 
Bagdad  Railway  and  the  Euphrates  Valley  irrigation 
project  to  North  Arabia  are  well  known.^ 

As  regards  religion  and  politics,  Arabia  also  has  her 
influence  for  Western  Asia.  A  writer  in  the  New  York 
"Journal  of  Commerce"  recently  said :  "We  have,  from 
time  to  time,  endeavored  to  make  plain  to  our 
readers  that  since  the  effective  arrest  of  Russian 
ambitions  in  Eastern  Asia,  the  international  center 
of  Asiatic  politics  must  be  sought  in  the  Persian 
Gulf."  The  present  political  conditions  in  Arabia 
deeply  interest  not  only  Great  Britain  and  Ger- 
many, but  France  and  Russia.  Turkish  rule  exists  in 
only  three  of  the  seven  provinces,  and  British  influence 
obtains  along  the  entire  coast  of  the  Persian  Gulf  and 

^Letter  to  Commission  No.  i,  World  Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgh, 
1910. 

^F.  R.  Maunsell,  "One  Thousand  Miles  of  Railway,"  National  Geographic 
Magazine,  1909,  156-172.  Compare  illustration  of  the  opening  of  the  road. 

•Sir  W.  Willcocks,  "Mesopotamia  Past  and  Present,"  Geographical  Journal, 
January,  1910. 


STRATEGIC    IMPORTANCE  1 69 

the  Indian  Ocean.  The  Persian  Gulf  has  practically 
become  an  English  lake,  and  British  rule  has  extended 
far  inland  from  Aden,  while  her  influence  is  supreme  in 
the  province  of  Oman.  All  this  is  favorable  to  Chris- 
tian missions.  In  Yemen,  the  rule  of  the  new  Turkish 
party  will  probably  result  in  an  open  door  for  the  Gospel 
throughout  all  of  that  populous  province,  if  we  seize 
the  present  opportunity.  Politics  and  missions  are  closely 
related  in  these  days  of  commercial  expansion,  and  there 
may  be  a  partition  of  Arabia,  as  there  was  of  Africa,  or, 
at  least,  the  opening  of  doors  closed  for  centuries  will 
follow  exploitation  and  political  and  commercial  ambi- 
tion in  the  neglected  peninsula.  We  must  unfurl  the  ban- 
ner of  the  Cross  nozu  in  every  one  of  the  provinces  and 
preempt  the  ground.  To  delay  may  prove  fatal  for  the 
enterprise. 

Arabia  is  important  also  because  of  the  Arabic  speech. 
Some  time  ago,  a  typewriter  firm,  in  advertising  a  ma- 
chine with  Arabic  characters,  stated  that  the  Arabic 
character  was  used  over  a  wider  area  than  any  other. 
A  professor  of  Semitic  languages  was  asked :  "How  big 
a  lie  is  that?"  He  answered,  *Tt  is  true."*  Arabic 
literature  is  found  throughout  the  whole  Mohammedan 
world,  and  the  Arabic  language,  which  was  the  vehicle 
for  carrying  Islam,  will  yet  become  the  great  vehicle 
for  the  Gospel  in  Africa  and  Asia  among  the  Moham- 
medans. It  is  growing  in  influence  and  power,  and  is 
one  of  the  great  living  languages  of  the  world.  The 
Arabic  Koran  is  a  text-book  in  the  day  schools  of  Turkey, 
Afghanistan,  Java,  Sumatra,  New  Guinea,  and  Southern 
Russia.    Arabic  is  the  spoken  language  not  only  of  Arabia 

'E.  H.  Babbit,  "Geography  of  the  Great  Languages,"  The  World's  Work, 
February,   1908. 


170  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

proper,  but  forces  the  linguistic  boundary  of  that  penin- 
sula three  hundred  miles  north  of  Bagdad  to  Diarbekir 
and  Mardin,  and  is  used  all  over  Syria  and  Palestine, 
and  the  whole  of  northern  Africa.  Even  at  Cape  Colony 
and  in  the  West  Indies,  there  are  daily  readers  of  the 
language  of  Mohammed.  The  Arabs  themselves  say: 
"Wisdom  hath  alighted  upon  three  things — the  brain  of 
the  Franks,  the  hand  of  the  Chinese,  and  the  tongue  of 
the  Arabs. "^  This  wonderful,  flexible,  logical  speech 
with  its  enormous  vocabulary  and  delicacy  of  expression 
can  only  be  won  for  Christianity,  when  Arabia  is  won 
for  Christ.  "It  surely  is  not  without  a  purpose,"  says 
Edson  L.  Clark,  "that  this  widespread  and  powerful  race 
has  been  kept  these  four  thousand  years,  unsubdued  and 
undegenerated,  preserving  still  the  simplicity  and  vigor 
of  its  character.  It  is  certainly  capable  of  a  great  future  ; 
and  as  certainly  a  great  future  lies  before  it.  It  may 
be  among  the  last  peoples  of  Southwestern  Asia  to  yield 
to  the  transforming  influence  of  Christianity  and  a  Chris- 
tian civilization.  But  to  these  influences,  it  will  assuredly 
yield  in  the  fulness  of  time."-    Is  that  time  now? 

Physically  and  intellectually,  the  Arabs  are  among  the 
strongest  and  noblest  races  of  the  world,  with  a  glorious 
history  and  a  literature  which  takes  second  place  to  that 
of  few  other  nations.  If  this  race  can  be  won  for  Christ, 
they  will  do  for  Him  what  they  once  did  for  Mohammed.^ 

The  strategy  of  time  and  place  is  even  greater  than 
that  of  race.  On  this  account,  none  of  the  unoccupied 
fields  in  Asia,  not  even  Arabia,  can  compare  in  strategic 

*Ed-Damiri   in   his   Dictionary,   "Hayat  el   Hayawan. 

«E.  L.  Clark,  "The  Arabs  and  the  Turks."  S.  M.  Zwemer,  "Arabia,  the 
Cradle  of  Islam,"  258-273. 

'"Why  Arabia?"  Leaflet  published  by  The  Arabian  Mission,  25  East 
Twenty-second  Street,  New  York. 


STRATKGIC    IMTORTANCE  1 71 

urgency  to-day  with  the  unoccupied  regions  in  Africa, 
where  the  forces  are  assenibHng  now  for  the  great  con- 
flict between  the  Cross  and  the  Crescent,  and  where  the 
unoccupied  fields  arc  the  battle  ground.  It  is  true  that 
the  population  of  Africa  is  comparatively  small  when  we 
think  of  India  or  China,  but  no  one  acquainted  with  its 
history  and  observant  of  its  resources  can  doubt  that 
under  more  settled  and  propitious  conditions,  the  popu- 
lation will  increase  enormously.  It  is  among  the  mass  of 
dark,  illiterate  and  degraded  pagans,  as  well  as  among  the 
semi-civilized  peoples  of  the  north,  already  Moslem,  that 
the  battle  with  Islam  is  to  be  fought.  At  present,  Islam  is 
conquering  and  nothing  can  stay  its  onward  march  or 
redeem  Africa  from  its  grasp  but  the  carrying  of  the 
Gospel  of  Christ  at  once  into  every  part  of  the  unoccu- 
pied fields.  Paganism  crumbles  before  Islam.  The  situ- 
ation is  critical  and  the  testimony,  as  regards  the  urgency 
of  this  part  of  the  missionary  problem,  is  unanimous  in 
its  character,  and  comes  from  every  part  of  the  mission 
field.  From  Syria,  Japan,  the  Philippine  Islands,  China, 
India,  Burma,  Ceylon,  the  New  Hebrides,  Sumatra, 
Arabia,  Baluchistan  and  even  Peru,  testimony  has  come 
that  in  the  estimation  of  leading  missionaries  in  these 
countries,  the  most  urgent  missionary  world  problem  is 
to  meet  and  overcome  the  Mohammedan  advance  in  Af- 
rica. And  this  testimony  concerns  the  unoccupied  fields 
of  Africa. 

F.  W.  Steinthal  writes  from  Calcutta :  ''Africa  is 
undoubtedly  the  field  where  the  Mohammedan  ad- 
vance makes  it  most  urgent  to  prevent  the  build- 
ing up  of  this  iron  wall,  not  so  much  by  at- 
tacking Islam  in  general  as  by  a  speedy  preoccu- 
pation   of    all    vacant    fields."     While    Bishop   Tucker, 


172  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

of  Uganda,  states:  "In  Africa,  Mohammedanism  is  now 
astir  and  moving  forward  with  an  ahnost  resistless  mo- 
mentum. The  pagan  tribes  at  present  can  be  won  for 
Christ  with  comparative  ease,  but  let  Mohammedanism 
once  become  entrenched  among  them  and  the  work  of 
evangelizing  them  will  be  increased  a  hundred  fold."^  "The 
battlefield  is  before  our  eyes,"  writes  Dr.  Frank  Weston, 
the  Canon  of  Zanzibar;  "the  forces  of  the  enemy  are 
drawn  up.  Will  our  church  send  out  her  leaders  to 
inspire  the  African  Christians?  If  not,  Africa  will  be- 
come Mohammedan  from  the  Zambesi  to  the  coast  line 
of  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  It  is  not  for  me,  in  this  place, 
to  emphasize  the  danger  to  Europe  of  a  Mohammedan 
Africa,  nor  to  dwell  on  the  blindness  of  those  imperial 
forces  who  favor  Islam  at  the  cost  of  Christ.  These 
matters  concern  the  imperial  government.  My  duty  is 
to  acquaint  English  Church  people  with  the  facts  as  we 
see  them,  and  to  summon  them  to  arouse  themselves  to 
the  work  to  which  our  Lord  is  clearly  calling  them."^ 
Dr.  Henry  Holland,  of  Quetta,  Baluchistan,  writes: 
"Africa  should  first  receive  concentrated  attention  be- 
cause if  pagan  Africa  once  embraces  Islam,  then  the  work 
of  converting  them  to  Christianity  will  be  a  thousand 
times  more  difficult  and  slow.  Once  Africa  is  under 
the  sway  of  Islam,  the  days  of  spiritual  harvest,  such 
as  have  taken  place  in  Uganda,  will  be  over  forever. 


^Testimony  of  missionaries  on  the  Moslem  peril  in  Africa,  correspondence 
Commission  No.  i,  World  Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgh,  1910.  See 
also  "Pan-Islam,"  Archibald  B.  Colquhoun,  North  American  Review,  June, 
1901.  F.  VVurz,  "Die  Mohammedanische  Gefahr  in  Westafrika,"  Basel, 
1904.  Prof.  Carl  Meinhof,  "Zwingt  uns  die  Heidenmission  Muham- 
medanermission  zu  treiben?"  Osterwieck,  1906.  G.  K.  Simon,  "Die  Moham- 
medanische Propaganda  und  die  evangelische  Mission,"   Leipzig,   1909. 

'"The  East  and  the  West,"  April,  1908.     "Some  African  Problems." 


STRATKC.IC    IMPORTANCE  173 

Africa,  in  my  opinion,  offers  the  most  urgent  call  at 
the  present  time."^ 

There  are  centers  of  strategic  importance,  as  Nigeria 
and  the  Sudan,  where  the  land  has  not  yet  been  wholly 
won  for  Islam.  There  is  yet  time  for  the  Christian 
Church  to  put  up  breakwaters  against  tlie  oncoming 
wave  of  Islam,  but  what  a  sad  thing  it  is  to  compare  the 
little  handful  of  Christian  missionaries  now  in  this  great 
area  with  the  multitude  of  Sanusiyah  dervishes  and  Mos- 
lem traders  who  pour  into  the  region  year  by  year.^ 

Dr.  W.  R.  Miller,  writing  from  Northern  Nigeria,  says: 
"Of  all  unevangelized  fields,  I  know  of  no  more  pressing 
one  than  the  great  Sudan,  West,  Central  and  East.  Ex- 
tending from  Northern  Nigeria  to  Egypt,  with  five  great 
Mohammedan  provinces,  there  is  no  missionary.  West 
from  us  to  the  Atlantic,  no  missionary,  and  the  country 
teeming  with  pagans  in  the  French  Sudan  who  are  fast 
becoming  Moslems.  North  of  us  right  up  to  the  Medi- 
terranean, and  literally  not  a  missionary?"^  All  this 
testimony  leaves  no  doubt  that  Islam  is  spreading  and 
going  faster  than  Christianity  throughout  the  Dark  Con- 
tinent. It  claims  the  whole  of  Africa  for  its  especial 
own,  and  is  occupying  all  the  unoccupied  fields.  This 
surely  is  not  the  time  for  Christian  governments  to 
allow  pagans  to  think  that  they  prefer  Islam  to  Chris- 
tianity, and  that  they  would  rather  have  them  turn  Mos- 
lem than  Christian.  Nor  is  it  a  time  when  missionary 
societies  should  be  satisfied  with  holding  the  outposts 
instead  of  attacking  the  citadel.     When  Islam  is  making 


'Letter    to    Commission    No,    i,    World    Missionary    Conference,    Edin- 
burgh, 1910. 
^Ibid. 
•Ibid. 


174  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

its  bid  of  all  Africa  by  persistent  propagandism,  no  one 
can  help  but  see  the  real  strategy  of  evangelizing  the 
remaining  pagan  races  as  speedily  as  possible. 

*'In  the  Dark  Continent,  the  Crescent  is  waxing,  not 
waning,"  writes  Rev.  W.  H.  T.  Gairdner;  "it  is  already 
half-moon  and  expects  soon  to  be  at  full.  ...  In  Africa 
every  Moslem  is  a  natural  missionary — whether  he  be 
a  good  man  or  whether  he  be  bad.  He  fraternizes  with 
the  negroes ;  he,  his  clothes,  and  his  morality  are  not  too 
fine  for  them,  and  yet  just  a  little  finer  than  their  own, 
so  that  it  becomes  fashionable,  a  la  mode,  for  the  negro 
to  Islamize.  The  Englishman  has  stopped  the  slave 
trade;  old  wrongs  are  easily  forgotten.  The  English- 
man— the  real  friend  of  the  negro — merely  holds  the 
ring  with  his  Pax  Britannica,  while  the  Arab  trader — 
the  negro's  cruel  foe  of  a  generation  since — quietly 
'evangelizes'  him.  Everywhere  these  traders  go,  the 
tendency  to  Islamize  is  enormously  strong,  and  often  irre- 
sistible."! 

The  recent  Moslem  advance  in  Africa  has  been  chiefly 
in  three  directions:  from  the  Upper  Nile,  from  Zanzibar 
into  the  Congo  region,  and  up  the  Niger  basin.  Formerly, 
Islam  followed  in  the  track  of  the  Moslem  conquerors. 
Later,  the  slave  routes  became  the  highways  of  Moslem 
propagandism.  To-day,  the  movement  is  more  general, 
more  wide-spread,  more  insidious,  without  display  or 
advertisement,  but  strong  and  certain  and  wide-sweeping 
as  the  rising  tide.  From  Northern  Nigeria,  the  Hausa 
merchants  carry  the  Koran  and  the  Moslem  catechism 
wherever  they  carry  their  merchandise.  No  sooner  do 
they  open  a  wayside  shop  in  some  pagan  district,  than  the 

^Article  on  The  Anti-Christian  Religion  in  North  Africa,   1909. 


STRATEGIC    IMPORTANCE  175 

mosque  is  built  by  its  side.  The  laity  are,  in  a  sense,  all 
preachers.  Shop  keeper  and  camel  driver  are  proud  of 
their  Prophet  and  of  his  Book.  If  they  cannot  read  it, 
they  at  least  kiss  it,  and  wear  it  as  an  amulet  and  carry 
it  everywhere.     All  ranks  of  society  arc  propagandists. 

And  there  are  forces  which  favor  the  spread  of  Islam 
in  Africa  and  increase  its  peril.  First,  the  superior  culture 
of  Islam  in  contrast  with  paganism.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  the  words  of  Sir.  H.  H.  Johnston  are  true:  'The 
Arab  has  been  a  curious  mixture  of  curse  and  blessing 
to  black  Africa;  the  cause,  direct  or  indirect,  of  the 
slaughter  of  millions  of  human  beings,  yet  a  most  effective 
civilizer  hitherto ;  the  raiser  of  rude  and  nasty  cannibals 
into  well-clothed,  well-grown,  self-respecting  men  and 
women,  the  revealer  of  great  geographical  secrets  and 
the  preparer  of  the  way  for  the  true  white  man."^  It 
is  the  power  of  this  higher  culture  that  gives  Islam  tre- 
mendous advantage  over  against  dying  paganism  in  the 
Dark  Continent.  M.  Gaden,  the  French  traveler,  for 
example,  found  a  Moslem  library  of  no  less  than  a  thou- 
sand volumes  in  the  very  heart  of  the  Sahara,  and  of 
these  books  over  five  hundred  were  in  manuscript.^  The 
Moslem  daily  and  weekly  journals,  published  at  Cairo, 
are  carried  to  every  part  of  the  continent,  and  the  im- 
portation of  Mohammedan  charms  and  amulets  has  be- 
come a  regular  trade  among  pagan  Africans. 

Add  to  this  the  fact  that  the  colonial  governments 
nearly  everywhere  discriminate  against  Christian  mis- 
sions. This  is  true  of  German  East  Africa,  of  the  Anglo- 
Egyptian   Sudan,   of   Northern   Nigeria,   and   of  all   the 

^H.   V^ischcr,    "Across  the   Sahara,"    Preface,    17. 

*"Une  Bibliotheque  Sahariennc,"  Revue  du  Monde  Mussulman,   Vol.   VIII, 
409-418. 


176  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

States  along  the  Mediterranean.  The  Moslem  curricu- 
lum at  the  Gordon  Memorial  College,  the  testimony  of 
German  missionaries,  in  regard  to  their  own  government 
policy  and  that  of  British  missionaries  in  Nigeria,  are 
sufficient  evidence.  "Islam  in  East  Africa,"  says  Pro- 
fessor Carl  Meinhof  of  Berlin,  "has  a  number  of  strong 
allies.  The  first  among  them  is  the  fear  and  sympathy 
of  European  nations.  Islam  is  a  political  religion,  and 
in  politics,  fear  is  always  failure.  None  of  the  real  friends 
of  missions  would  expect,  or  even  think  of  a  forcible 
suppression  of  Islam,  but  we  may  surely  expect  Christian 
governments  not  to  cultivate  and  favor  Moslem  propa- 
gandism." 

The  third  force  which  favors  the  spread  of  Islam  lies 
in  its  low  moral  standards,  and  its  points  of  contact  with 
paganism.  The  Moslem  creed  is  easily  accepted,  because 
it  is  easily  understood.  Islam  is  a  religion  without  mys- 
teries and  without  thorough-going  morality.  It  suits  the 
palate  of  the  pagan  negro  and  promises  a  paradise  after 
his  own  heart.  It  does  not  make  the  demands  of  Chris- 
tianity and  allows  many  pagan  customs  and  beliefs  to 
exist  undisturbed.  The  use  of  fetiches,  charms  and 
heathen  practices  is  not  foreign  to  Mohammedanism,  as 
we  have  already  shown.  The  road  from  paganism  to  Islam 
is  much  easier  than  the  steep  ascent  to  Christianity  as  has 
been  conclusively  proved  by  the  recent  books  of  Warneck 
and  Simon  on  the  conflict  between  Christianity  and  Islam 
for  the  conquest  of  paganism  in  Malaysia.^ 

Add  to  this  the  fact,  that  Islam  knows  no  caste  or 
color  line,  builds  no  mosques  for  the  rich  and  the  poor, 

^Joh.  Warneck,  "The  Living  Christ  and  Dying  Heathenism."  G.  Simon, 
"Islam  und  Christentum  im  Kampf  zum  Eroberrung  des  Animistischen 
Heidenwelt,"  passim. 


STRATEGIC    IMPORTANCE  177 

has  no  "East  end  and  West  end,"  but  invites  the  naked 
pagan  to  enter  the  great  brotherhood  of  bcHevers  and 
rise  at  one  leap  to  the  highest  possible  caste  of  social 
and  religious  distinction.  All  these  things  favor  the 
spread  of  Islam  and  hinder  the  progress  of  Christianity  in 
Africa. 

The  most  recent  and  authoritative  statement  in  regard 
to  the  present  spread  of  Islam  in  Africa  is  that  given  by 
Pastor  Wurz.*  His  array  of  facts  is  as  convincing  as  it 
is  alarming. 

Advance  into  the  unoccupied  fields  of  the  world,  of 
Asia,  as  well  as  of  Africa  wherever  possible,  is  for  all 
the  reasons  given  above,  the  highest  form  of  missionary 
strategy.  Because  the  border  marches  are  held  by  Chris- 
tian missions,  we  must  cross  over  into  regions  beyond 
or  allow  a  Christless  civilization  and  a  rival  creed  to 
precede  the  Church  and  preempt  the  ground.  In  the 
words  of  the  Koran:  "Every  nation  has  its  appointed 
time,  and  when  their  appointed  time  comes,  they  cannot 
keep  it  back  an  hour,  nor  can  they  bring  it  on."  That 
time  is  nozv  for  nearly  all  the  unoccupied  fields.  It  surely 
is  for  those  in  Africa. 

Xor  is  it  probable  that  amid  all  the  restless  movements 
in  the  neighboring  Moslem  nations — Turkey,  Persia  and 
India — Central  Asia  and  Afghanistan  will  remain  dor- 
mant. On  the  contrary,  there  are  indications  that  the 
Pan-Islamic  movement  has  reached  Bokhara  and  Kabul, 
as  well  as  Orenburg  and  Tiflis.  Not  only  is  there  dis- 
cussion of  social  reform  in  the  Moslem  press  of  Russia, 
but  the  Tartar  paper,  "Terjuman,"  recently  contained  a 
proposition  calling  for  a  Pan-Islamic  Congress  to  dis- 

^Alliemeine  Missions-Zeitschrifl,   Berlin,  1910,   16-30,  73B2. 


178  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

CUSS  the  reformation  of  Islam.^  At  present,  the  Mos- 
lems of  Chinese  Turkistan  are  *'the  essence  of  imper- 
turbable mediocrity.  They  Hve  a  careless,  easy,  apathetic 
existence;  nothing  disturbs  them.  It  is  their  destiny, 
shut  away  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  to  lead  a  dull, 
spiritless,  but  easy  and  perhaps  happy  life,  which  they 
allow  nothing  to  disturb."^  Let  these  Moslems,  how- 
ever, once  become  aroused  through  the  Cairo  press  or 
the  dervish  preacher,  and  who  can  tell  what  might  be 
the  result  in  Central  Asia?  Now  is  the  opportunity  to 
carry  the  Gospel  to  them. 

Nothing  can  hold  back  the  advance  of  Western  civili- 
zation into  the  very  heart  of  Asia.  The  railway  and 
the  caravan  are  forcing  upon  them,  through  every  pass 
and  along  every  channel  of  communication,  the  latest 
inventions  of  our  times.  At  Kabul,  one  may  see  motor 
cars,  sewing  machines,  graphophones,  rifles,  and  smoke- 
less powder.  One  of  the  results  of  the  visit  of  the  Amir 
of  Afghanistan  to  India  was  that  he  arranged  for  the 
erection  of  looms  in  his  capital,  and  now  we  hear  of  the 
transportation  by  camel  train  of  pianos,  motor  cars,  and 
a  plant  for  wireless  telegraphy,  through  the  Khaibar  Pass. 
For  the  management  of  all  these  modern  industries,  a 
staff  of  European  engineers  and  mechanics  is  admitted 
into  the  country.  For  some  years,  European  physicians, 
both  men  and  women,  have  been  under  the  protection  and 
the  pay  of  the  Amir.  Why  should  the  missionary  be 
forbidden  entrance? 

"To  the  tough  hearts  that  pioneer  their  way 
And  break  a  pathway  to  those  unknown  realms. 


^London  Times,  Oct.    12,    1908. 

'F.   E.    Younghusband,    "The   Heart   of  a    Continent,"    144, 


STRATEGIC    IMPORTANCE  1 79 

That  in  the  earth's  broad  shadow  lie  enthralled, 

Endurance  is  the  crowning  quality, 

And  patience  all  the  passion  of  great  hearts."* 

'Jamei  Russell  Lowell,  quoted  in  S.  C.  Rijnhart's  "With  the  Tibetans  in 
Tent  and  Temple,"  397. 


THE  PIONEER  AND  HIS  TASK 


i8i 


"White  hands  cling  to  the  bridle  rein, 
Slipping  the  spur  from  the  booted  heel; 
Tenderest  voices  cry,  'Turn  again,* 
Red  lips  tarnish  the  scabbarded  steel; 
High  hopes  die  on  the  warm  hearthstone, 
He  travels  the  fastest  who  travels  alone. 

"One  may  fall,  but  he  falls  by  himself; 
Falls  by  himself  with  himself  to  blame. 
One  may  win,  and  to  him  is  the  pelf, 
Loot  of  city  in  gold  or  fame. 
Treasures  of  earth  are  all  his  own 
Who  travels  the  fastest  and  travels  alone." 

— Rudyard  Kipling. 

"Yes,  without  cheer  of  sister  or  of  daughter. 
Yes,  without  stay  of  father  or  of  son. 
Lone  on  the  land  and  homeless  on  the  water, 
Pass  I  in  patience  till  the  work  be  done." 

—Frederic  W.  H.  Myers,  "St.  Paul." 


«  n 


'My  sword  I  give  to  him  that  shall  succeed  me  in  my  pil- 
grimage, and  my  courage  and  skill  to  him  that  can  get  it.  My 
marks  and  scars  I  carry  with  me,  to  be  a  witness  for  me,  that 
I  have  fought  His  battles,  Who  will  now  be  my  rewarder.*  So 
he  passed  over,  and  all  the  trumpets  sounded  for  him  on  the 
other  side." 

—Death  of  Valiant-for-the-Truth,  "Pilgrim's  Progress." 


Chapter  VII 
THE  PIONEER  AND  HIS  TASK 

If  we  are  to  take  advantage  of  the  present  opportunity, 
and  if  the  reproach  of  long  neglect,  which  rests  upon 
the  Church  because  so  large  a  part  of  the  world  is  still 
unoccupied  at  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century,  is 
to  be  removed,  definite  plans  must  be  projected,  action 
must  be  taken,  and  sacrifices  made  to  enter  these  fields. 

And  first  of  all,  there  must  be  a  real  strategy  in  our 
plans  for  occupation.  We  must  discover  not  only  the 
best  agencies  to  enter  these  fields,  but  determine  the  best 
method  and  the  best  moment  for  eflFective  occupation, 
as  well  as  select  the  most  strategic  centers,  and  secure 
the  best  men  to  attempt  the  task. 

In  many  cases,  especially  in  some  parts  of  China,  the 
effective  occupation  of  hitherto  unoccupied  areas  calls 
most  of  all  for  the  strengthening  of  existing  missions  by 
reinforcement,  both  of  men  and  equipment,  enabling  them 
to  reach  out  into  the  smaller  areas  adjoining  their  sta- 
tions with  large  populations  among  whom  no  work  is 
now  being  carried  on.  It  would  be  a  serious  mistake 
to  multiply  new  agencies  where  old  agencies  or  societies 
are  already  at  work.  Such  would  not  only  be  a  breach 
of  comity,  but  a  mistaken  strategy  and  a  waste  of  energy. 
Nearly  all  of  the  fields    treated  in  Chapter  II    do  not 

183 


l84  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION   FIELDS 

need  more  missionary  societies,  but  niore  missionaries 
and  closer  co-operation  on  the  part  of  the  societies  on 
the  border-lands  of  unoccupied  territory.  Dr.  T.  L. 
Pennell  well  points  out  the  strategy  of  strengthening  the 
work  at  the  base  before  attempting  an  advance  into 
regions  beyond.  We  need  to  reinforce  the  stations  on 
the  border-marches  as  does  the  British  Government 
its  military  stations,  not  merely  in  relation  to  their  present 
environment  and  need,  but  as  a  basis  to  go  forward  and 
evangelize  the  yet  unoccupied  lands.^ 

Yet  there  is  also  need  for  the  establishment  of  new 
mission  centers  within  the  unoccupied  territories  at 
points  of  vantage  removed  from  existing  missions  and 
not  within  their  immediate  plan  of  activities.  It  would 
be  unwise  for  any  missionary  society  or  agency,  whose 
resources  are  limited  and  whose  financial  burdens  are 
already  heavy,  to  attempt  the  establishment  of  new  sta- 
tions by  the  impoverishment  of  older  stations  and  the 
weakening  of  existing  work.  The  far-flung  battle  line  of 
the  army  of  God  is  even  now  perilously  weak  and  slender. 
Concentration  and  not  diffusion  is  the  right  missionary 
policy  in  such  cases,  but  this  does  not  take  away  our 
responsibility  for  the  unoccupied  fields,  nor  weaken  the 
argument  for  their  immediate  occupation.  The  Church 
has  men  enough  and  resources  to  do  both  if  she  will.  A 
serious  effort  to  occupy  all  of  the  unoccupied  fields,  and 
to  carry  the  Gospel  to  the  uttermost  part  of  every  un- 
occupied field,  is  the  test  of  our  loyalty  to  Christ. 

In  considering  the  task  of  the  pioneer,  this  chapter 
treats  first  of  the  man  and  then  of  his  mission. 

In  so  difficult  an  undertaking,  everything  under  God 
depends   on   the   kind   of   men    selected.      If,   as   Aaron 

»T.  L.  Pennell,  "Among  the  Wild  Tribes  of  the  Afghan  Frontier,"  305. 


THK    riONKER    AND    HIS   TASK  I85 

Matthews  said,  a  missionary  to  the  Jews  ''requires  Abra- 
ham's faith.  Job's  patience,  the  meekness  of  Tyloses,  the 
strength  of  Samson,  the  wisdom  of  Solomon,  the  love 
of  John,  the  zeal  of  Paul,  and  the  knowledge  of  the 
Scripture  which  Timothy  had,"  then  surely  the  pioneer 
missionary,  who  faces  an  even  more  difficult  task,  needs 
special  qualifications. 

The  pioneer  stands  in  a  class  by  himself,  like  Paul 
among  the  Apostles.  His  glory  and  joy  is  the  magnitude 
and  the  difficulty  of  the  task.  The  unknown  attracts 
him.  Obstacles  allure  him,  and  difficulties  only  knit  his 
moral  fibre  and  strengthen  his  purpose.  He  can  never- 
more be  disobedient  to  the  heavenly  vision.  He  sees  the 
opportunity  and  seizes  it. 

"He  is  crude  with  the  strength  of  the  seeker  of  toil; 
From  the  hot,  barren  wastes  he  is  gathering  spoil 
For  a  nation  that  lives  from  the  bounty  he  gives — 
He's  the  Builder,  the  Winner  of  Ways. 

Where  the  silent  wastes  bake  in  the  summer's  hot  glow, 
Where  the  forests  are  choked  in  the  shroud  of  the  snow, 
By  his  brain  and  his  brawn  a  new  nation  is  born — 
He  goes  forth  to  conquer  new  realms. 

And  the  world  has  its  heroes  of  lace  and  gold  braid, 
That  are  honored  and  wined  for  the  waste  they  have  made; 
But  the  world  little  knows  of  the  debt  that  it  owes 
To  the  Hewer,  the  Blazer  of  Trails."* 

Those  who  prepare  a  highway  for  the  King  must  have 
the  heroism  and  steadfast  purpose  of  men  like  James 
Chalmers,  who  said:  "Recall  the  twenty-one  years,  give 
me  back  all  its  experience,  give  me  its  shipwrecks,  give 
me  its  standings  in  the  face  of  death,  give  it  me  sur- 
rounded  with    savages   with    spears    and   clubs,   give    it 

*Rudyard  Kipling. 


1 86  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

me  back  again,  with  spears  flying  about  me,  with  the 
club  knocking  me  to  the  ground,  give  it  me  back,  and 
I  will  still  be  your  missionary."^  They  need  to  feel 
an  utter  dependence  on  the  power  of  God  and  a  sense 
of  their  own  insufficiency. 

"I  think  nothing  has  struck  my  mind  more  forcibly 
in  this  country,"  wrote  Livingstone,  "than  the  necessity 
of  the  Holy  Spirit's  influence  in  the  work  of  conversion. 
At  home  I  felt  it;  but  here,  no  sooner  do  we  become 
intimately  acquainted  with  the  character  of  the  people 
than  the  mind  is  overwhelmingly  convinced  that  without 
divine  aid,  nothing  can  be  done.  This  makes  me  entreat 
the  earnest  prayer  of  all  my  friends.  I  entreat  yours.  I 
feel  that  I  might  live  all  my  life  here  and  do  nothing  to 
advance  the  period  when  the  Redeemer  shall  see  of  the 
travail  of  His  soul  and  be  satisfied.  I  implore  your  prayers 
that  I  may  be  made  wise  to  win  souls."^ 

Before  Keith  Falconer  went  to  Arabia,  Major  General 
Haig,  who  had  traveled  around  the  peninsula,  wrote  a 
paper  calling  for  pioneers ;  it  was  this  appeal  that  found 
an  echo  and  a  response  at  Cambridge. 

"Given  the  right  men,"  he  said,  "and  Arabia  may  be 
won  for  Christ;  start  with  the  wrong  men  and  little  will 
be  accomplished.  But  what  qualifications  are  needed: 
what  enthusiasm,  what  fire  of  love,  what  dogged  resolu- 
tion, what  uttermost  self-sacrificing  zeal  for  the  salvation 
of  men  and  the  glory  of  Christ ! 

"Upon  this  point  I  prefer  to  quote  here  the  words  of  a 
man  who  is  preeminently  qualified  to  speak  upon  the  sub- 
ject.   Three  years  ago  he  wrote  to  me : 

*R.  Lovett,  "James  Chalmers,"  277. 

2From  3  letter  dated  1843,  first  published  in  1910,  quoted  in  The  Mission' 
ary  Herald,  April,  1910. 


THE   PIONEER   AND   HIS   TASK  187 

"  'Unless  you  have  missionaries  so  full  of  the  spirit  of 
Qirist  that  they  count  not  their  own  lives  dear  to  them, 
you  will  probably  look  in  vain  for  converts  who  will  be 
prepared  to  lose  their  lives  in  the  Master's  service.  In 
a  relaxinsj^  tropical  climate,  like  that  of  Aden,  circum- 
stances arc  very  unfavorable  for  the  development  of  self- 
denying  character,  or  of  energetic  service.  No  small 
amount  of  grace  would  be  needed  to  sustain  it ;  for  we 
are  compound  beings,  and  there  is  a  wonderful  reaction 
of  the  body  upon  the  soul,  as  well  as  of  the  soul  upon 
the  body.  It  is  supremely  important,  then,  in  an  enter- 
prise like  yours,  to  have  the  right  stamp  of  men — men 
who  have  made  some  sacrifices,  and  who  do  not  count 
sacrifice  to  be  sacrifice,  but  privilege  and  honor — men 
who  do  not  know  what  discouragement  means,  and  men 
who  expect  great  things  from  God.  Such  alone  will 
prove  really  successful  workers  in  a  field  so  replete  with 
diflBculty.  Unless  Eternity  bulks  very  largely  in  the  esti- 
mation of  a  man,  how  can  he  encourage  a  native  con- 
vert to  take  a  step  that  will  at  once  destroy  all  his  hopes 
and  prospects  of  an  earthly  character,  and  possibly  re- 
sult in  imprisonment  and  torture  and  death  itself?  and 
unless  you  have  men  who  are  prepared,  should  God  seem 
to  call  for  it,  to  lead  their  converts  into  circumstances 
of  such  danger  and  trial,  it  is  not  very  likely  that  they 
will  find  converts  who  will  go  very  much  in  advance  of 
themselves.  Men  of  this  stamp  are  not  to  be  manu- 
factured ;  they  are  God-made.  They  are  not  to  be  found ; 
they  must  be  God-sought  and  God-given.  But  the  Mas- 
ter who  has  need  of  them  is  able  to  provide  them.'  "^ 

This  high  ideal  of  a  British  army  officer,  who  himself 

^Quoted  in  S.  M.  Zwem«r'»  "Arabia,  the  Cradle  of  Islam,"  389,  390. 


1 88  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

engaged  in  actual  pioneer  service,  both  as  an  explorer 
and  as  a  missionary  in  India  and  Arabia,  is  not  too  high 
to-day  for  those  who  undertake  to  enter  lands  like  the 
Sudan,  Tibet,  Afghanistan  or  the  French  Congo.  All 
these  lands  call  for  heroic  service. 

"'To  the  man  who  cannot  rough  it,"  says  John  R.  Muir, 
"Tibet  will  be  a  perfect  nightmare.  For  one  hundred  and 
seventy-two  nights  I  did  not  sleep  in  my  bed,  and  during 
that  time  we  traveled  through  districts  where  the  alti- 
tude, often  over  16,000  feet,  would  be  sufficient  to  ex- 
clude many  an  aspirant  for  honors  in  this  warfare.  For 
days,  we  lived  on  the  coarsest  vegetables,  and  such  game 
as  we  came  across  along  the  road.  Some  nights  we 
slept  without  any  beds ;  once  we  were  without  food  for 
almost  twenty-four  hours ;  often  we  had  to  walk  when 
it  was  almost  beyond  human  endurance,  but  on  the  whole, 
it  was  like  a  summer  vacation,  because  we  were  strong 
and  able  to  enjoy  it.  As  the  work  develops  and  stations 
are  opened,  these  long  journeys  will  be  a  thing  of  the 
past,  so  anyone,  with  a  good  constitution  and  a  will  to 
rough  it,  will  find  Tibet  a  pleasant  land."^ 

The  pioneer  missionary  is  a  soldier  and  must  be  willing 
gladly  to  ''partake  of  the  sufferings  of  Christ."  Mis- 
sions mean  warfatre.  Should,  then,  soldiers  of  the  Cross 
shrink  from  undertaking,  on  behalf  of  Christ,  what  is 
being  done  every  day  for  commerce  or  conquest  ?^ 

"The  sand  of  the  desert  is  sodden  red — 

Red  with  the  wreck  of  a  square  that  broke ; 

The  gatling's  jammed, 

And  the  colonel's  dead, 
And  the  regiment  blind  with  dust  and  smoke; 

^the  Student  Movement,  "Tibet   Needs  Men,"   April,   1909,   162. 

'Cf.  C.  H.  Harner,  "Congo  Qualities,"  The  Intercollegian,  December,  1908. 


THK    PIONEER    AND    HIS   TASK  189 

"The  river  of  death  has  brimmed  its  banks. 
And  England's  far.  and  honor's  a  name ; 
But  the  voice  of  a  schoolboy  rallies  the  ranks — 
Play  up.  play  up, 
And  play  the  game."* 

And  then,  the  task  of  the  pioneer  calls  also  for  that 
keen  sense  of  humor  which  is  an  essential  quality  for 
all  who  would  win  against  such  odds  as  a  hard  climate, 
rough  travel  and  food  that  is  often  "fearfully  and  won- 
derfully made." 

When  many  leagues  distant  from  the  nearest  laundry, 
John  Van  Ess  wrote  from  the  Pirate  Coast  in  Arabia : 
"After  thirty  days,  my  khakis  had  begun  to  look  dis- 
reputable, and  Solomon  proposed  to  wash  them.  So  he 
went  to  the  bazaar  and  proceeded  to  ask  for  soap.  They 
shrank  back  in  horror  and  surprise.  'Soap?'  they  cried, 
'it  hurts  women  and  has  a  malignant  odor;  no,  we 
do  not  use  soap !'  The  next  day,  I  suggested  to  Feirooz, 
a  slave  detailed  for  my  use,  that  he  wash  his  garment, 
crusted  with  the  accumulated  filth  of  months.  'No,'  said 
Feirooz,  'I  have  spent  rupees  three  for  musk,  rose  water 
and  cinnamon.  If  I  wash  it  out  now,  where  is  the  money  ?' 
The  problem  staggered  me  and  I  kept  silence." 

And  this  is  how  Mrs.  T.  L.  Pennell  describes  two 
journeys  on  the  borders  of  Afghanistan :  "I  was  once 
shown  over  the  'Augusta'  institution  of  massage  at  the 
baths  in  Wiesbaden,  where  a  miserable  porter  had  to 
place  any  part  of  his  anatomy  at  the  disposal  of  visitors 
who  wi.shed  to  see  the  massage  machinery  applied.  I 
never  knew  the  extent  of  that  man's  suffering  till  I  went 
to  Kohat  by  tonga,  a  drive  of  eighty  miles,  lasting  ten 
and  a  half  hours." 

»H.  Newbold,  "Play  Up." 


IQO  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

Describing  the  feast  that  awaited  them  there  she 
goes  on  to  say:  'They  shelled  the  nuts  with  their  teeth, 
then  carefully  rubbed  them  between  their  palms  and 
offered  them  to  me.  In  vain  did  I  protest  that  I  could 
not  deprive  them  of  their  nuts;  I  had  to  take  them.  I 
managed  to  get  most  of  them  into  my  husband's  hand- 
kerchief, and  the  rest  are  still  lying  behind  the  bed !  By 
nine  they  had  our  dinner  cooked.  It  consisted  of  very 
tough  mutton,  eggs,  and  little  balls  of  fat — a  special  deli- 
cacy made  from  the  tail  of  the  'dumba'  (sheep).  When 
we  had  eaten  as  much  as  we  could  (with  the  help  of  the 
cat),  they  produced  half  a  leg  of  mutton  on  a  skewer, 
just  roasted.  When  this  was  refused,  two  plates  of 
'kitcheree'  were  brought.  It  looked  and  tasted  just  like 
a  poultice,  so  I  did  not  partake  of  it.  I  expect  it  is  an 
acquired  taste  !"^  A  sense  of  humor  will  sometimes 
save  the  situation  when  nothing  else  will."  Laughter  is 
a  safety  valve  for  a  pent-up  temper  and  a  smile  is  often  as 
valuable  as  a  passport   when  in  the  midst  of  difficulties. 

"It's  easy  enough  to  be  pleasant 
When  life  flows  by  like  a  song, 
But  the  man  worth  while  is  the  man  who  can  smile 
When  everything  goes  dead  wrong." 

The  success  of  a  pioneer  missionary  depends  largely 
on  his  ability  to  identify  himself  with  the  people  among 
whom  he  labors.  Paul  became  all  things  to  all  men. 
And  the  real  secret  of  the  open  door,  in  many  of  these 
closed  lands,  is  the  ability  to  enter  the  door  as  though 
you  were  one  of  those  on  the  inside.  William  Edmund 
Smyth,  the  first  bishop  of  Lebombo,  Africa,  in  a  series 

*"Two  Journeys  in  Thai,"  Mercy  and  Truth,  June,  1909. 
•A.  J.  Brown,  "The  Foreign  Missionary,"  242: 


THE    PIONEER   AND   HIS  TASK  iqi 

of  meditations  "On  the  Joys  and  the  Work  of  a  Mis- 
sionary," reiterates  that  the  success  of  the  pioneer  will 
ever  be  in  exact  proportion  to  his  power  to  sympathize 
with  the  natives  in  every  detail  of  their  lives.  "It  is  not 
at  all  easy,"  he  says,  "but  if  we  would  be  perfect  mission- 
aries, we  must  do  our  best.  Think  you  it  was  easy  for 
the  Son  of  God  to  enter  into  the  life  of  the  people  at 
Nazareth,  to  enjoy  their  little  jokes,  to  put  up  with  their 
curious  superstitions,  to  follow  all  the  details  of  their 
meaningless  etiquette,  to  take  part  in  their  festivities, 
etc.?  Yet  He  did  this  for  thirty  years  before  He  began 
to  teach. "^ 

The  pioneer  missionary  has  much  to  learn  from  the 
record  of  travelers  and  explorers,  as  well  as  much  to 
avoid. 

We  are  told  by  one  who  tells  the  story  of  triumph  over 
geographical  difficulties  that  a  keen  discernment  of  the 
Arab's  character,  a  fluent,  accurate  knowledge  of  his 
speech,  a  lively  interest  in  his  desert  joys,  a  heart  of 
sympathy,  and  a  dogged,  undaunted  perseverance,  were 
the  stepping-stones  to  success  in  the  penetration  of 
Arabia.2 

Shall  men  and  women  of  this  stamp  be  wanting  to  win 
Arabia  and  the  other  unoccupied  fields  for  Christ? 

Again,  no  man  can  be  a  pioneer  missionary  who  does 
not  have  his  convictions  in  regard  to  Christ  and  the  Gos- 
pel wrought  out  in  his  own  life  experience.  The  pioneer 
is  dependent  on  his  own  resources ;  he  stands  alone. 
He  must  be  not  only  a  man  with  a  message,  but  must 
embody  that  message  in  his  own  life  and  character.    The 

nV.    E.    Smyth,    "The   Work   of   the   Missionary."    pamphlet    (C.    M.    S.), 
Litchworth,    England. 
'D.  G.  Hogarth,  "The  Penetration  of  Arabia,"  passim. 


192  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

pioneer  missionary  is,  therefore,  in  a  peculiar  sense,  the 
representative  of  Christ.  Some  years  ago,  I  was  preach- 
ing in  one  of  the  hospitals  in  East  Arabia,  and  spoke 
of  the  love  of  Christ;  its  length  and  breadth  and  depth 
and  height,  using  the  words  of  the  Apostle  as  the  basis 
of  my  talk.  I  endeavored  to  present  the  subject  simply 
so  that  it  could  be  understood  by  the  uneducated  people 
who  had  gathered  in  the  waiting-room.  At  the  close  of 
the  address,  a  Moslem,  unprepossessing  in  appearance, 
who  had  evidently  not  been  to  the  hospital  before, 
stepped  forward  and  with  Bedouin  bluntness  exclaimed, 
"I  understood  all  you  told  us,  because  I  have  seen  that 
sort  of  man  myself." 

In  the  conversation  that  followed,  this  Arab,  who  came 
from  a  city  about  five  hundred  miles  distant,  "began  to 
describe,  in  response  to  inquiries,  a  stranger  who  had 
come  to  his  city  and  taken  up  his  residence  there.  ''Why," 
he  said,  **he  was  a  strange  man.  When  people  did  wrong 
to  him,  he  did  good  to  them.  He  looked  after  sick  folks 
and  prisoners,  and  everybody  who  was  in  trouble.  He 
even  treated  negro  slave  boys  and  sick  Arabs  kindly. 
He  was  always  good  to  other  people.  Many  of  them  never 
had  such  a  friend  as  he  was.  He  used  to  take  long 
journeys  in  the  broiling  sun  to  help  them.  He  seemed  to 
think  one  man  was  as  good  as  another.  He  was  a  friend 
to  all  kinds  of  people.     He  was  just  what  you  said." 

To  my  surprise,  this  rude,  uneducated  man  had  recog- 
nized, in  the  description  which  I  had  given  of  the  love 
of  Christ,  a  Christian  missionary,  and  greater  was  my 
surprise  later  to  find  that  it  was  my  brother,  Peter  J. 
Zwemer,  who,  in  1893,  opened  work  in  Muscat,  and  died 
in  the  Presbyterian  Hospital,  New  York,  in  1898.  That 
Mohammedan  had  not  only  heard  the  word  of  the  mis- 


THE   PIONEER   AND   HIS  TASK  193 

sionary,  but  he  had  seen  it  exemplified  in  the  missionary's 
hfe.  What  hip^her  tribute  could  be  paid  to  the  daily  life 
of  one  of  God's  servants  than  the  fact  that  an  ignorant 
Mohammedan,  studying  him  day  by  day,  recognized 
Christ!^ 

An  equally  vivid  picture  is  given  of  this  pioneer  privi- 
lege by  Dr.  Susie  Rijnhart.  She  and  her  husband  were 
at  Hsi-ningfu  in  far  western  China  during  the  Moslem 
revolt  and  massacres  in  1896.  "When  peace  had  been 
declared,  Mr.  Rijnhart.  to  the  consternation  of  both  Ti- 
betans and  Chinese,  went  to  the  Mohammedan  quarters 
at  Topa  to  treat  the  Mohammedan  wounded.  It  had  been 
understood  that  because  we  had  helped  the  Chinese  and 
Tibetan  soldiers,  therefore  we  shared  their  hatred  of  their 
enemies,  and  could  not  possibly  have  a  kind  thought  for 
them.  When  they  saw  that  the  missionary  was  just  as 
kind  and  tender  to  the  Mohammedans  as  to  themselves, 
they  were  utterly  amazed.  The  law  of  Christian  kindness, 
impelling  love  and  mercy  even  for  one's  enemies,  was 
vividly  brought  to  their  attention,  and  some,  as  they 
pondered  the  lesson,  thought  again  of  the  colored  Bible 
picture  on  the  wall  of  our  house  in  Lusar — the  picture 
of  the  Good  Samaritan.  There  they  had  learned  the 
lesson  in  story — the  missionary  had  translated  it  into 
action."- 

This  brings  us  to  the  special  qualifications  of  the  pioneer 
professionally.  The  task  of  the  pioneer  to-day  calls  pre- 
eminently for  the  medical  missionary.  In  him,  mercy 
and  truth  are  met  together.  He  holds  the  key  to  every 
closed  door,  because  of  his  skill  to  heal  and  compassion 
to  help.    The  experience  of  all  workers  in  Moslem  lands 

'S.   M.   Zwemer,   "The  Message  and  the  Man,"   pamphlet. 

«S.  C.   Rijnhart,   "With  the  Tibetans  in  Tent  and  Temple,"   loo-ioi. 


194  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

is  unanimous,  that  greater  and  better  results  can  be  ob- 
tained through  the  work  of  medical  missionaries  than  in 
any  other  way  among  a  class  of  people  who  form  nearly 
one-half  of  the  total  population  of  the  unoccupied  fields. 
A  medical  man  would  to-day  be  welcomed  in  places  where 
the  preacher  perhaps  could  not  enter.  He  would  find 
his  hands  full  of  work  as  soon  as  he  arrived.  The  door 
of  the  suflfering  always  open  to  the  hand  of  sympathy.' 
"There  is  a  language,"  said  Dr.  George  E.  Post,  at  the 
London  Missionary  Conference,  "that  all  can  under- 
stand, and  which  carries  a  message  which  every  man  cares 
sooner  or  later  to  hear.  From  the  moment  the  medical 
missionary  sets  foot  on  his  chosen  field,  he  is  master 
of  this  universal  language,  this  unspoken  tongue  of  the 
heart,  and  is  welcome  to  the  home  of  strangers.  The 
simple  Arab  lifts  for  him  the  curtain  of  his  goat's-hair 
tent  and  bids  him  enter.  The  Mandarin  calls  him  to 
his  palace,  the  peasant  begs  him  to  come  to  his  lonely 
cabin,  the  Brahman  leads  him  to  the  recesses  of  his 
zenana.  He  stands  before  kings,  and  governors  escort 
him  with  squadrons  of  cavalry,  or  take  him  to  and  fro 
in  their  gunboats  or  barges  of  state.  Kings  build  hos- 
pitals for  him,  and  the  rulers  of  the  earth  aid  him  with 
their  treasures  and  their  power."^ 

Concerning  Baluchistan  Dr.  Dixey  says,  "In  the  early 
days  in  Quetta,  the  only  method  of  getting  into 
touch  with  the  tribesmen  was  by  medical  work.  At  first 
there  was  much  opposition,  the  mullahs  being  the  chief 
instigators,  and  the  number  of  patients  was  often  very 
small.     Gradually,  however,  as  the  work  became  better 

^Cf.  T.  L.  Pennell,  "Our  Northwest  Frontier  in  India,"  Chirch  Missionary 
Review,  August,  1908;  or  the  experience  of  the  traveler,  H.  W,  Walker, 
"Wanderings  Among  South  Sea  Savages,"  219. 

^Address  at  the  Ecumenical  Missionary  Conference,  London,  1890. 


THE    PIONEER   AND   HIS   TASK  IQS 

known,  and  the  country  more  settled,  the  attitude  of  the 
people  greatly  changed,  and  with  the  influx  of  natives  of 
India  into  the  city  of  Quetta,  employed  in  various  capaci- 
ties, the  numbers  rapidly  grew,  and  during  the  last  two 
or  three  years  the  attendance  has  averaged  some  30,000 
patients  per  annum  in  the  men's  hospital."^  And  of  the 
border-lands  of  Afghanistan,  Colonel  Wingate  writes: 
**One  remark  is  applicable  to  all  the  tribes  that  lie  beyond 
the  Indian  frontier,  to  the  IMohmands  and  Shinwaris,  to 
the  Kohistanis  and  the  Chitrals,  to  the  inhabitants  of 
Swat  and  Dir,  of  Hunza  and  Yasin,  that  they  are  all  to-day 
without  the  help  and  relief  of  medical  science  and  skill, 
and  would  hail  with  uncommon  thankfulness  the  arrival 
of  the  medical  missionary  with  his  dispensary  and  hos- 
pital, for  the  sake  of  which  they  would  tolerate  his  Bible 
and  listen  to  his  exhortations, — and  learn  to  love  the 
Saviour  of  all  mankind." 

There  is  pioneer  work  also  for  the  scholar  and  linguist 
in  the  unoccupied  fields  of  the  world.  The  Bible  has 
already  been  translated  into  all  the  principal  tongues  of 
the  world,  and  portions  of  it  into  more  than  four  hundred 
languages  and  dialects  employed  by  nearly  1,200,000,000 
people,  or  seven-tenths  of  the  human  race.^  But  how 
far  these  existing  versions  will  ultimately  supply  the  needs 
of  the  other  three-tenths  is  not  known.  Afghanistan  is 
supplied  with  the  Pushtu  Bible,  and  Tibet  with  the  Tibe- 
tan New  Testament  and  the  Pentateuch.  The  Nepalese 
have  the  New  Testament  and  the  various  Turkish  tribes 
of  Central  Asia  at  least  portions.  'There  are,  however, 
large  areas  which  will  still  need  to  be  covered  by  transla- 

'A.   D.    Dixey,   "Baluchistan,"   Church   Missionary  Review,   December,    1908. 

*Bible  Society  Report  and  a  letter  from  Rev.  R.  Kilgour,  D.D.,  Supt. 
of  Translation  Dcpartmcat,  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society,  April  25, 
Z910. 


196  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

tions.  Such  are  the  Sudan,  parts  of  Central  Africa 
including  the  upper  Nile,  parts  of  Central  Asia,  parts  of 
the  Dutch  East  Indies,  part  of  Oceania,  and  parts  of 
Central  South  America.^  One  of  the  tasks  before  the 
pioneer  missionary  is  to  complete  the  New  Testament 
or  the  whole  Bible  for  peoples  that  have  only  one  or 
two  of  the  Gospels ;  another  is  to  put  the  Gospel,  for 
the  first  time,  into  a  new  language,  and  so  Christianize 
the  speech  of  the  people.  In  some  cases,  he 
must  reduce  the  speech  of  the  people  to  writing, 
give  them  an  alphabet  and  must,  therefore,  surely 
be  a  trained  linguist.  In  Kordofan  alone,  there 
are  eleven  distinct  languages  ;2  and  according  to 
some,  in  the  Philippine  Islands  eighty  dialects.  The 
Scriptures  have  been  translated  into  only  eight  or  ten 
of  these  dialects,  and  it  may  not  be  desirable  to  translate 
into  all,  but  here  and  there  a  Gospel  would  be  important. 
The  same  is  true  all  over  parts  of  Micronesia  and  of 
many  parts  of  Africa.^     The  Laotian  language,  for  ex- 


^Concerning  the  languages  of  Tibet,  Bishop  La  Trobe  writes:  "Wherever 
great  mountain  ranges  separate  the  dwellers  in  one  valley  from  those  on  the 
other  side  of  the  ridges,  which  seem  to  rise  into  the  sky,  so  that  they 
seldom  meet  and  converse  with  one  another,  in  such  regions  dialects  are 
multiplied.  This  is  amply  illustrated  in  our  Tibetan  field.  Between  our 
stations  at  Leh  and  Poo  there  are  400  miles  of  travel  over  range  after 
range,  whose  peaks  tower  far  over  20,000  feet,  and  whose  passes  rise  to 
18,000  feet.  Midway  between  lies  Kyelang,  and  the  missionary  who  has 
learnt  his  Tibetan  at  that  central  station  will  for  a  considerable  time  find 
himself  at  a  loss  in  addressing  the  congregation  at  any  of  the  others. 
Ladaki,  or  the  Tibetan  dialect  of  Ladak,  the  province  of  Kashmir,  in  which 
our  stations  at  Leh  and  Kalatse  lie,  differs  very  materially  from  the  Tibetan 
spoken  in  Lahoul,  where  Kyelang  is  situated,  or  in  Bashahr,  the  native 
State,  in  which  Chini  and  Poo  lie.  Small  as  the  British  Province  of  Lahoul 
is,  our  missionaries  there  have  to  do  with  three  distinct  languages  besides 
Tibetan— Bunan,  Trinan  and  Manchat."— ^/  the  Threshold,  April  15,  1908. 

^Capt.  W.  Lloyd,  "Notes  on  Kordofan  Province,"  Geographical  Journal, 
March,   1910,  249. 

'Letter  from  Dr.  W.  I.  Haven,  American  Bible  Society,  May  11,  1910. 


THE    PIONEER    AND    HIS   TASK  IQ/ 

ample,  is  spoken  by  the  tribes  who  occupy  the  southern 
part  of  Central  Siam  and  has  spread  into  the  interior  of 
Indo-China.  They  arc  by  no  means  illiterate,  though 
their  books  are  all  Buddhist  manuscripts.  Hitherto  no 
book  has  ever  been  printed  in  their  tongue.  M.  Gabriel 
Contesse,  a  Swiss  missionary,  has  just  completed  two 
Gospels  at  Song-Khone,  in  Annam,  where  half  the  popu- 
lation, women  as  well  as  men.  can  read.  Hear  the  in- 
teresting story  of  this  one  translation : 

"In  order  to  print  these  Gospels  in  the  Laotian  char- 
acter, special  type  had  to  be  made.  The  Laotian  people 
use  an  alphabet  which  possesses  twenty-six  consonants 
and  fourteen  vowels.  These  characters  were  carefully 
written  out  on  paper,  hv  a  native  scribe  who  had  assisted 
M.  Contesse  in  his  translation.  It  is  interesting  to  learn 
that  the  scribe  had  never  before  used  paper  to  write  on, 
but  only  palm  leaves.  Indeed,  the  effect  of  such  writing 
material  may  be  traced  in  the  curiously-curved  style 
which  characterizes  the  Laotian  alphabet.  From  a  speci- 
men Laotian  alphabet,  furnished  by  the  native  scribe, 
patterns  were  designed  at  the  Bible  House,  London ;  and 
from  these  patterns,  matrices  were  cut,  from  which  the 
type  has  been  made  to  print,  for  the  first  time,  a  book 
in  the  Laotian  character."^ 

Reading  the  account  of  this  most  recent  version  of  **The 
Old,  Old  Story,"  who  would  not  envy  a  like  task  and 
privilege  translating  it  for  others  who  have  never  heard 
before?  The  survey  of  the  unoccupied  fields  is  a  challenge 
to  linguistic  scholarship  and  a  call  for  its  consecration, 
not  in  the  library  at  home,  but  on  the  border-lands  of  the 
King.^ 

'"The    Story    of    God's    Love    in    Laotian,"    leaflet,    British    and    Foreign 
Bible   Society,    1909. 
'"If  there  were  no  other  result  of  missionary  labors  than  that,   they  have 


198  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

In  considering  this  part  of  the  pioneer's  task  it  is  well 
to  remember  that  the  distribution  of  the  Scriptures  is 
possible  in  many  places  where  other  evangelistic  work 
would  be  forbidden.  This  is  especially  true  in  Moslem 
lands  and  in  Russian  Asia.  In  Siberia,  the  Bible 
Society  enjoys  many  privileges  denied  it  in  Europe, 
and  its  workers  possess  the  full  confidence  of 
the  official  class.  The  Society  has  free  carriage 
for  all  its  books  without  limit  on  all  the  railway 
lines.  In  1908-09,  no  less  than  50,000  portions  were  put 
into  circulation  in  the  Siberian  district.^  There  are  few 
places  even  in  the  most  inaccessible  and  most  difficult 
of  the  unoccupied  fields  where,  by  tact  and  patience,  an 
open  door  may  not  be  found  for  the  entrance  of  the  Word 
of  God.  It  has  long  since  crossed  the  Afghan  border,  is 
known  in  Lhasa,  has  readers  at  Mecca  and  Meshed,  and 
goes  where  no  missionary  can  yet  enter.  Bible  distribu- 
tion by  sale,  or  in  rare  cases  by  gift,  is  doubtless  one  of 
the  best  pioneer  agencies,  but  should  always  be  carried 
on  under  the  supervision  or  by  the  direction  of  the  es- 
tablished Bible  Societies.^ 

We  turn  now  to  another  aspect  of  the  work  in  the 
unoccupied  fields,  namely,  the  opening  of  a  station. 
The  organization  of  a  pioneer  mission  and  the  opening 

conferred  an  inestimable  boon  upon  the  whole  human  race,  and  all  the 
lives  that  have  been  spent  in  the  mission  cause  from  the  beginning  till  now 
would  even  for  that  result  not  have  been  thrown  away.  Apart  altogether 
from  the  spiritual  aspect  of  the  case,  and  looking  merely  to  the  secular 
side  of  it,  the  philological  value  of  a  work  like  that  is  simply  incalculable." 
—Gust,  "Normal  Addresses  on  Bible  Diffusion,"  33.  Cf.  also  Prof.  Carl 
Meinhof,  "Erfolge  und  Ziele  der  Modernen  Sprachforschung  in  Afrika," 
Miinchen,  1907. 

^British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  Reports,  1907,  114;   1909,  136. 

*The  folly  of  giving  away  indiscriminately  gilt  edged  Scriptures  to  those 
who  would  not  read  them  was  indulged  in  by  a  free-lance  missionary 
only  a  few  years  ago  in  Arabia  1 


THK    PIOXKKR    AND    HIS    TASK  I99 

of  a  pioneer  station  is  as  full  of  perils  as  it  is  of  possi- 
bilities, unless  it  be  done  with  wise  forethought,  tactful 
method  and  sane  precaution.  There  are  many  lessons 
to  be  learned  from  the  mistakes  and  failures  of  the  past 
as  well  as  from  the  faith,  courage  and  common  sense  of 
those  whose  enterprise  was  crowned  with  success. 

Thoroughness  of  preparation  was  the  secret  of  Com- 
mander Peary's  conquest  of  the  Pole,  as  it  was  of  Lord 
Kitchener  in  his  advance  on  Khartoum.  Great  goals  are 
greatly  won,  and  are  not  reached  by  chance  or  at  hap- 
hazard. The  cliarge  of  the  Light  Brigade  was  magnifi- 
cent, but  it  was  not  war.  It  was  a  mistake.  The  death 
of  General  Gordon  at  Khartoum  was  glorious  for  him, 
but  a  disgrace  to  those  who  might  have  sent  reinforce- 
ments. There  have  been  similar  blunders  in  pioneer  mis- 
sionary effort  with  less  excuse.  One  strongly-manned, 
well-sustained  enterprise,  at  a  strategic  base,  is  worth 
more  than  half  a  dozen  spectacular  campaigns  into  the 
great  unknown  without  permanent  results. 

The  task  of  the  pioneer  calls  for  prudence  and  common 
sense.  Some  years  ago,  a  party  of  American  mission- 
aries landed  at  Sierra  Leone ;  two  of  their  main  principles 
were  faith-healing  and  pentecostal  gifts  of  tongues ;  no 
medicines  were  to  be  taken,  no  grammars  or  dictionaries 
made  use  of.  The  party  was  attacked  by  malignant 
fever ;  two  died,  refusing  quinine.  When  the  garrison 
^  surgeon  called  on  the  survivors,  he  found  their  minds 
fixed  not  to  take  medicine.  An  independent  missionary 
in  the  Persian  Gulf,  an  earnest  Christian,  came  with 
similar  views  some  ten  years  ago  with  the  idea  of 
crossing  the  Arabian  peninsula  in  the  heat  of  summer, 
a  chest  of  Bibles  his  only  outfit ;  needless  to  say,  he  did 
not  succeed. 


200  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

There  seems  to  be  a  belief  in  some  quarters  that  mis- 
sionaries should  become  ascetics,  in  order  to  evangelize 
successfully.    But  is  this  wise  policy?^ 

A  certain  mission,  not  long  ago,  issued  the  following 
statement : 

"For  some  years  we  have  believed  that  there  was  no  hope  that 
the  world  would  ever  be  evangelized  by  salaried  preachers  and 
missionaries,  and  one  of  the  foundation-stones  of  our  movement 
has  been  that  the  laborers  should  in  reality  follow  Jesus  in 
the  giving  up  of  all  things  for  His  name  and  for  their  needy 
brethren,  and  go  forth  to  a  life  of  trust  in  God,  and,  if  need  be, 
of  hardship  and  suffering.  We  are  also  reminded  that  what  have 
become  to  be  generally  understood  to  be  the  necessities  and  com- 
forts for  the  body  are  not  always  essential  or  helpful  in  the 
matter  of  spiritual  power  and  blessing  to  the  world,  and  we 
desire  to  keep  before  our  eyes  the  words  of  the  great  apostle, 
'Even  unto  this  present  hour  we  both  hunger,  and  thirst,  and  are 
naked,  and  are  buffeted,  and  have  no  certain  dwelling-place,'  and 
to  remember  that  the  'Captain  of  our  salvation  was  made  perfect 
through  suffering.'  " 

Now,  however  much  we  admire  such  zeal   (and  it  is 


*These  words  from  the  Report  of  Commission  No.  i,  World  Missionary 
Conference,  Edinburgh,  1910,  are  applicable.  "The  unfavorable  climate  of 
certain  fields  has  an  important  bearing  on  the  disposition  of  the  forces. 
One  of  the  sad  chapters  in  the  history  of  modern  missions  is  the  record 
of  attempts  unguided  by  the  experience  of  long  established  boards,  and 
therefore  resulting  in  the  inauguration  of  missions  without  sufficient  safe- 
guards against  unnecessary  suffering  and  loss.  The  risks  to  be  faced  con- 
stitute no  valid  reason  for  holding  back.  On  the  contrary,  such  sacrifices 
as  have  been  involved  have  not  been  without  their  large  fruitage  and  have 
also  been  to  many  a  zealous  soul  a  romantic  and  inspiring  call.  The  occu- 
pation of  such  fields  should  be  governed  by  the  experience  gained  often  at 
great  cost.  Stations  should  be  manned  with  a  sufficient  number  of  workers 
to  prevent,  so  far  as  possible,  their  breakdown  in  health,  and  workers 
should  be  within  easy  reach  of  medical  help.  The  different  stations,  like- 
wise, should  be  wisely  located  and  equipped  with  reference  to  protecting 
the  health  of  the  workers.  More  frequent  furloughs  should  be  taken,  and 
vacations  at  health  resorts  on  or  near  the  different  fields  should  be  insisted 
upon.  These  matters  of  prudence  are  of  great  importance  in  the  economy 
of  missions." 


TIIK    riONHKR    AND    HIS   TASK  20T 

worthy  of  admiration),  it  is  not  according  to  knowledge. 
These  are  not  sound  missionary  principles.  With  all 
respect  for  the  earnest  men  who  wrote  them,  we  cannot 
but  believe  that  such  a  method  is  presumption.  No  army 
of  conquest  would  think  of  adopting  it.  Nor  should 
Christian  soldiers.  In  all  nature,  we  see  God's  wise  pro- 
vision against  heat,  cold  and  exposure.  ''Consider  the 
lilies  how  they  grow,"  and  the  beasts  of  the  field,  how 
they  are  clad.  God  does  not  put  the  Polar  bear  on  the 
Congo,  nor  the  hippopotamus  in  the  heart  of  Arabia. 
The  animal  is  adapted  to  his  environment.  The  beaver 
builds  his  house  according  to  the  severity  of  the  winter 
and  the  depth  of  the  stream.  Brutes  take  no  risks  on 
their  health.  Lambs  are  provided  with  wool,  and  it  is 
untrue  that  God  tempers  the  wind  to  the  shorn  lamb. 
He  does  not  need  to  temper  His  wind,  because  He  does 
not  shear  the  lamb. 

The  apostle  Paul  took  care  of  his  body,  although  he 
was  ready  to  die  daily.  He  traveled  from  Jerusalem  to 
Illyricum  evangelizing  and  planting  churches,  and  yet 
sent  back  for  the  cloak  which  he  left  at  Troas,  lest  he 
take  cold  in  the  damp  Mamertine  prison  of  Rome.  He 
was  abstemious,  and  sacrificed  everything  to  win  Christ 
L'ld  preach  Him  crucified,  and  yet  he  told  his  helper, 
Timothy,  "Drink  no  longer  water,  but  use  a  little  wine 
for  thy  stomach's  sake  and  thine  often  infirmities." 
When  he  suflfered  shipwreck  and  came  on  shore  drenched, 
he  did  not  sit  down  to  hold  a  prayer-meeting  and  take 
rheumatism  on  cold  Mclita,  but  rushed  about  to  kindle 
a  fire,  and  gathered  brushwood  to  make  the  blaze  big. 
His  was  not  only  "the  spirit  of  love  and  of  power,"  but 
of  a  "sound  mind."  The  Son  of  Man  was  not  an  ascetic ; 


202  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

He  came  eating  and  drinking.^  The  pioneer  missionary 
need  not  be  an  ascetic  to  win  his  own  self-respect  or  that 
of  the  people.  He  needs  a  sound  mind  in  a  sound  body 
for  his  difficult  task. 

He  should,  however,  be  free  for  the  march  and  un- 
encumbered for  hard  service.  '*No  man  that  warreth  en- 
tangleth  himself  with  the  affairs  of  this  life  that  he  may 
please  Him  who  hath  chosen  him  to  be  a  soldier."  When 
we  remember  intrepid  explorers,  like  Lady  Ann  Blunt, 
Mrs.  Theodore  Bent  and  Isabella  Bird  Bishop,  or  heroic 
missionaries  like  Dr.  Susie  Rijnhart  and  Annie  Taylor, 
in  Tibet,  or  Mary  Moffat,  in  Africa,  it  is  evident  that, 
in  the  task  and  the  glory  of  the  pioneer,  women  have 
their  part.  Nevertheless,  single  men,  as  a  rule,  are  better 
fitted  for  exploration  and  reconnaissance  on  the  border- 
marches.  As  soon  as  a  base  has  been  established,  the 
Christian  home  finds  its  place  and  power.  Until  then, 
the  call  is  for  men  who  can  leave  their  families  or  are 
without  them.  The  words  of  Colonel  Wingate,  already 
quoted,  are  in  place:  "If  the  missionary  is  going  to  wait 
until  Central  Asia  is  safe  to  take  up  his  wife  and  children 
with  him,  then  the  doors  are  closed,  but  it  is  not  closed 
against  those  who  are  qualified  to  go.  The  British  offi- 
cers of  Government,  who  are  serving  in  Central  Asia, 
are  selected  officers.  What  has  determined  their  selec- 
tion? Their  fitness,  their  qualifications  (unmarried  or 
willing  to  leave  their  family  behind,  knowing  the  lan- 
guage, strong,  robust,  fearless,  tactful,  etc.),  for  being 
placed  alone  or  with  only  one  or  two  other  officers,  in 
far  advanced  posts.  In  the  same  way,  if  we  had  lOO  fully 
qualified,  carefully-selected  missionaries,  there  would  be 

^Sce  an  article  on  "The  Temptations  of  the  Missionary"  in  the  Missionary 
Review  of  the  World,  August,  1904. 


A    WOMAN     OF    NKl'AL 


The    total    populatiun    of    this    State    is    5,000,000.      There    is    no    resident 

missionary.  202 


THli:    riONEER   AND   HIS  TASK  203 

little  difficulty  in  putting  thcni  into  positions  of  enormous 
advantage,  from  the  spiritual  point  of  view,  in  Central 
Asian  territories."^ 

In  regard  to  the  formation  of  new  societies  caution  is 
necessary.  The  peril  of  disaster,  because  of  lack  of  ex- 
perience on  the  field  and  the  need  of  wise  administration 
at  home,  may  well  be  pointed  out  here.  There  is  no 
dearth  of  missionary  societies,  and  in  the  growing  sense 
of  comity  and  co-operation,  there  can  be  no  possible 
strategy  in  their  unwise  multiplication.  The  call,  there- 
fore, from  the  unoccupied  field,  is  not  for  the  organiza- 
tion of  new  societies  so  much  as  for  the  older  societies 
to  take  up  the  work.  All  those  who  feel  called  of  God 
to  begin  work,  therefore,  in  the  fields  mentioned  should 
first  of  all  remember  this  and,  if  possible,  identify  their 
efforts  with  the  societies  already  at  work  in  proximity 
to  the  unoccupied  field.  Because  of  their  long  experience, 
their  splendid  organization,  their  economy  of  administra- 
tion and  their  knowledge  of  methods,  it  is  evident  that 
these  societies  should  lead  in  all  plans  for  the  effec- 
tive occupation  of  regions  hitherto  neglected.  Guerilla 
warfare,  on  the  borders  or  in  the  interior  of  the  enemy's 
country,  may  offer  opportunity  for  the  display  of  splendid 
heroism,  but  only  a  well  conducted  campaign  on  regular 
lines  of  action  can  give  assurance  of  complete  victory. 

Once  it  has  been  decided  to  open  up  a  new  field,  the 
most  important  matter  is  that  of  the  choice  of  location. 
Too  great  care  cannot  be  exercised  in  the  selection  of 
new  mission  stations.  As  in  warfare,  they  should  be 
strategic,  as  healthful  as  possible,  and  in  unbroken  com- 
munication with  the  base  of  supplies.     A  page  from  the 

*  Letter  to  Commission  No.  1,  World  Missionary  Conference,  Edin- 
burgh, 1910. 


204  'i^^  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

history  of  the  Arabian  Mission  of  the  Reformed  Church 
of  America  may  be  helpful  as  an  illustration : 

"In  those  first  years,"  writes  Dr.  James  Cantine,  "we 
scarcely  dared  to  hope  for  a  long  residence  in  this  'a 
land  that  devoureth  the  inhabitants  thereof.'  Again  and 
again  heat  and  fever  took  workers  from  our  ranks,  until, 
at  the  end  of  ten  years,  scarcely  more  than  half  the  num- 
ber of  men  sent  out  remained. 

"Those  whom  no  danger  could  deter,  came  in  increas- 
ing numbers,  so  that  we  soon  passed  beyond  that  deadly 
zone  of  isolation  and  overwork  which  hems  in  so  many 
small  organizations.  Years  have  also  brought  experience, 
and  increasing  income  has  made  possible  more  healthful 
surroundings,  until  now  our  missionaries  can  reasonably 
expect  far  more  than  two  decades  of  service. 

"These  twenty  years  may  be  divided  into  three  periods — 
those  of  locating,  establishing,  and  developing  our  work. 
The  first  period  represents  the  time  and  effort  spent  in 
deciding  upon  our  field.  Its  importance  is  not  likely  to 
be  over-estimated.  Many  a  colonizing  enterprise,  and 
missions  are  surely  that,  has  been  doomed  to  failure,  be- 
cause of  a  wrong  location.  Our  first  year  was  spent  in 
language  study  and  investigation  among  the  missionaries 
of  the  Syria  mission  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  The 
knowledge  we  carried  away,  not  only  of  the  Arabic,  but 
of  their  tried  and  proved  methods  of  meeting  the  general 
problems  of  Christian  work  in  a  Moslem  country,  was 
invaluable,  and  probably  saved  us  from  many  disastrous 
mistakes. 

"Within  two  years,  we  had  seen  almost  the  entire  cir- 
cumference of  the  Arabian  peninsula.  We  had  considered 
the  possibility  of  Aleppo  at  the  northwest  corner,  of  the 
Kauran,  south  of  Damascus,  and  of  Moab  east  of  the 


THE    PIONEER    AND   HIS   TASK  205 

Dead  Sea.  At  Aden,  we  spent  a  few  months.  The  ports 
of  the  Red  Sea,  on  the  west,  were  visited,  and  those  of 
the  Arabian  Sea,  on  the  south,  together  with  the  inland 
towns  of  Yemen.  Finally,  we  sailed  along  the  eastern 
shore  from  Muscat  to  Bagdad,  a  total  distance  of  nearly 
five  thousand  miles.  .  .  .  Busrah  was  chosen  as  our  first 
station.  The  liberal  character,  wealth  and  enterprise  of 
its  population ;  its  strategic  position,  where  trade  routes 
meet,  and  its  proximity  to  the  older  mission  fields  of 
Bagdad,  Mosul  and  Mardin — these  all  combined  to  de- 
termine our  choice. 

"Our  second  year  in  eastern  Arabia  was  signalized  by 
the  beginning  of  the  work  at  the  islands  of  Bahrein,  mid- 
way down  the  Persian  Gulf,  and  the  third  year  by  the 
opening  of  Muscat,  well  toward  the  southeast  corner. 
Thus  the  mission  had,  in  this  short  time,  outlined  its  entire 
field,  and  this  w^hen  its  working  force  consisted  of  but 
three  or  four  men.  To  so  isolate  them  in  stations  distant 
one  from  the  other  three  or  more  days'  journey  by  water, 
and  this  possible  only  at  intervals  of  two  weeks,  seemed 
extremely  hazardous.  But  we  felt  that  to  rapidly  in- 
crease our  mission  force  at  one  point,  was  to  still  more 
rapidly  increase  suspicion  and  opposition,  while  it  would 
also  alarm  the  native  rulers  at  the  other  two  places  we 
wished  to  hold.  And  one  man,  living  quietly  and  alone, 
can  often,  before  hostile  forces  think  it  worth  while  to 
combine  against  him,  have  remained  long  enough  to  es- 
tablish a  right  of  residence."^  The  sequel  has  proved  the 
wisdom  of  such  strategy,  and  there  is  no  reason  why  mis- 
sions should  not  be  established  in  a  similar  way  by  the 
tactful  occupation  of  centers  on  the  west  coast  of  Arabia 

•J.  Cantine,  "Twenty  Years  of  the  Arabian  Mission,"  Missionary  Review 

of  the  World,  October,   1909. 


206  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

and  between  Aden  and  Muscat  on  the  south,  and  then 
in  the  interior. 

In  regard  to  the  entrance  and  occupation  of  Tibet, 
we  can  also  learn  from  the  experience  of  the  past. 
Attempts  to  enter  Tibet  were  made  very  early  in  the 
history  of  missions.  In  1845  (^ot  to  speak  of  the  journey 
of  Odoric,  the  Apostle  of  Tartary,  in  1330),  Father  Gabet 
and  Father  Hue  penetrated  to  Lhasa,  only  to  be  arrested 
and  sent  as  prisoners  to  Canton.  Numerous  attempts 
have  been  made  since,  both  by  Roman  Catholic  and 
Protestant  missionaries,  by  way  of  India  and  China.  The 
Moravian  Church,  with  splendid  heroism  has,  for  over 
forty  years,  been  laying  siege  in  the  name  of  Christ  to 
these  ancient  strongholds  of  Buddhism.  A  cordon  of 
missionary  posts  is  being  drawn  around  Tibet,  and 
although  it  is  weak  and  with  long  gaps  in  the  links,  it 
extends  already  westward  from  Kashmir  along  the  north 
frontier  of  India  and  Burma,  and  reaches  up  to  the  North 
of  China. 

Yet  it  is  more  than  2,000  miles  from  Ladak,  the  Mo- 
ravian station  among  the  Tibetan  Buddhists,  to  the  Chi- 
nese frontier,  where  the  China  Inland  Mission,  on  this 
extreme  outpost  is  trying  to  reach  the  eastern  Tibetans. 

The  whole  story  of  the  attempted  entrance  into  this  great 
closed  land  is  full  of  heart-stirring  bravery.  The  Mo- 
ravian brethren  now  occupy  three  stations  in  Little  Tibet. 
They  have  prepared  grammars  on  the  language,  and  pub- 
lished a  dictionary  and  the  New  Testament  in  Tibetan. 

The  China  Inland  Mission,  the  Christian  and  Mission- 
ary Alliance,  the  Scandinavian  Alliance  Mission,  the 
Church  of  Scotland  Mission,  the  London  Missionary  So- 
ciety, the  Church  Missionary  Society,  and  the  Assam 
Frontier  Mission  have  all  made  preparatory  efforts,  more 


THE   PIONEER   AND  HIS   TASK  20/ 

or  less  extended,  to  enter  this  field.  Tibetans,  who  come 
over  the  border  for  trade,  are  in  touch  with  these  mission- 
ary agencies. 

No  new  missions  therefore  should  be  organized  for 
Tibet,  but  the  older  missions  sorely  need  reinforcement. 
The  natural  line  of  approach  at  present,  for  the  pene- 
tration of  Tibet,  seems  to  be  through  China.  In  any 
case,  the  evangelization  of  Western  China  would  pro- 
foundly affect  conditions  across  the  Tibetan  borders,  es- 
pecially since  the  recent  Chinese  occupation. 

The  problem  of  the  occupation  of  Afghanistan  and  of 
Central  Asia  can  be  outlined  from  present  conditions  as 
follows : 

The  Central  Asian  Mission  (organized  1902)  has 
a  station  at  Hoti-Mardan,  on  the  border-marches  of 
India,  near  Peshawar.  The  object  of  this  mission  is  to 
enter  Afghanistan.  Within  a  short  distance  of  this  out- 
post, they  report  2,000  villages  yet  unevangelized.  The 
Church  Missionary  Society  on  the  northwest  frontier 
of  India,  at  its  strong  stations,  Peshawar,  Bannu,  Dera- 
Ismail-Khan,  is  in  close  proximity  not  only  to  Afghanis- 
tan, but  is  beginning  to  carry  on  mission  work  by  itinera- 
tion and  through  its  hospitals,  as  well  as  the  circulation 
of  the  Scriptures  in  the  semi-indcpendcnt  states  and 
frontier  tribal  areas  between  the  boundary  line  of  Afghan- 
istan and  India,  i.  e.,  in  Waziristan,  Tirah,  Swat  and 
Chitral. 

Lying  along  the  northwest  frontier  of  India,  therefore, 
is  the  extended  line  of  Church  Missionary  Society  outposts 
all  the  way  from  Quctta  in  Baluchistan,  to  Srinagar  in 
Kashmir.  Some  of  these  missionary  outposts  are  organ- 
ized and  equipped  on  such  a  scale  as  to  be  real  mission 
bases,  ready  to  furnish  both  personnel  and  equipment  for 


208  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIF.LDS 

an  advance  into  Central  Asia,  where  spread  out  for  more 
than  1,000  miles  due  north,  and  for  3,000  miles  from  west 
to  east,  all  the  way  from  Meshed,  in  Persia,  to  Ba-tang, 
the  first  frontier  station  in  China,  is  the  unoccupied  heart 
of  Asia.  The  great  historic  cities  of  Samarkand,  Tash- 
kend,  Khokan,  Andijan,  in  Russian  Turkistan ;  Turfan, 
Aksu,  Hami  and  Khotan,  in  Chinese  Turkistan,  and  the 
centers  of  population  in  Afghanistan,  are  all  without  mis- 
sionaries. These  centers  should  be  thoroughly  investi- 
gated, made  the  objects  of  prayer,  and  in  accordance  with 
the  best  missionary  strategy  be  occupied  one  by  one. 

When  we  consider  the  desperate  condition  of  the  whole 
population,  deprived  of  all  medical  skill  and  subject  to 
every  superstition  and  cruelty,  the  establishment  of 
modern  mission  hospitals  in  each  of  the  large  centers  of 
population,  seems  not  only  essential  but  imperative.  Med- 
ical missions  hold  the  key  to  these  doors. 

Educational  work  might  begin  in  all  of  the  great  cities 
of  Russian  and  Chinese  Turkistan,  both  for  the  educa- 
tion of  native  workers  and  to  reach  the  better  class  of  Mo- 
hammedans through  Christian  education.  As  soon  as 
there  is  more  liberty,  and  present  hindrances  are  removed, 
there  should  be  three  Christian  colleges,  one  for  the 
Caucasus,  one  at  Bokhara,  and  one  for  Chinese  Turkis- 
tan at  Kashgar  or  Yarkand.^  Because  this  field  is  thor- 
oughly Mohammedan  in  its  character,  the  need  for  women 
workers  is  as  extensive  and  intensive  as  is  that  for  men. 

In  regard  to  literary  work,  much  remains  to  be  done. 
A  periodical  in  Turki  should  be  published  and  Christian 
literature  prepared  in  the  various  vernaculars  spoken. 

The  best  lines  of  advance,  in  the  immediate  future  for 

^Letter  from  Missionary  Larsen  of  Kashgar  to  Commission  No.  i.  World 
Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgh,  1910. 


THE    PIONEER   AND   HIS   TASK  209 

the  Strategic  occupation  of  Central  Asia,  mi^ht  be  indi- 
cated as  follows:  First,  to  strengthen  by  immediate  rein- 
forcement the  work  begun  so  courageously  and  success- 
fully at  Kashgar  and  Yarkand  by  the  Swedish  Mission, 
and  to  have  missions  under  Swedish,  Danish  or  American 
societies  begin  work  in  the  other  great  centers  along  the 
Russian  railway  in  Turkistan.  This  work  could  best  be 
done  by  such  societies  as  would  not  be  under  political 
suspicion  on  the  part  of  the  Russian  Government.^ 

The  unoccupied  fields  in  Africa  are  so  many,  so  di- 
verse, of  such  vast  area  and,  in  some  cases,  so  wedged  in 
between  fields  occupied  by  the  various  organized  mis- 
sions, that  only  careful  study  in  each  particular  instance 
would  yield  the  right  plan  for  advance  and  occupation. 
The  vast  Sudan,  for  example,  is  being  approached  and 
entered  from  three  directions — from  the  south,  the  west 
and  the  east.  In  reviewing  the  successive  attempts  to 
enter  this  field,  the  Church  Missionary  Society  is  rightly 
accorded  the  first  place.  As  early  as  1841  and  1857, 
Bishop  Samuel  Crowther  accompanied  trading  and  ex- 
ploring expeditions  up  the  Niger.  Yet,  not  until  the  close 
of  the  century  was  the  first  definite  attempt  made  to 
occupy  the  Central  Sudan.  Graham  Wilmot  Brooke, 
stirred  by  the  heroism  of  General  Gordon,  strove,  for 
several  years,  to  reach  inland  from  the  Congo  and  from 
the  north  but  failed.  Convinced  that  the  real  gateway 
was  the  Niger,  he  returned  to  England  and  laid  his  plans 
before  the  Church  Missionary  Society.' 

"A  party  was  organized,  consisting  of  three  men  and 


•Letter  from  Missionary  G.  Raquette  of  Yarkand,  Turkistan,  to  Com- 
mission  No.   1,  World   Missionary    Conference,    Edinburgh,    1910. 

•*'A  Resume  of  Pioneer  Efforts  in  the  Sudan"  in  The  Missionary  PVitness. 
Toronto,  Sudan  Number,   1909. 


2IO  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

two  ladies,  and,  on  April  4,  1890,  they  reached  Lokoja, 
at  the  entrance  of  the  Sudan.  Here  they  studied  the 
language  and  itinerated  in  the  neighborhood,  but  while 
at  first  things  seemed  hopeful,  in  less  than  twelve  months, 
although  three  other  workers  had  been  sent  out,  only  one 
man  was  left  on  the  field,  and  in  less  than  two  years, 
the  two  leaders  were  buried  at  Lokoja,  and  the  remaining 
members  of  the  party  had  left  the  field,  and  the  mission 
was  disbanded. 

"The  next  attempt  was  made  by  a  new  Society,  or- 
ganized by  Hermann  Harris.  After  attempting  in 
vain  to  cross  the  Sahara  desert,  they  sailed  for  the  Niger. 
Refused  permission  to  proceed  up  the  river  by  the  offi- 
cials of  the  Royal  Niger  Company,  and  detained  in  the 
deadly  Niger  delta,  one  missionary  was  stricken  down 
with  fever,  and  the  other  returned  home. 

"At  the  time  of  the  British  occupation  of  Nigeria,  the 
Church  Missionary  Society  renewed  its  attempt  to  enter 
the  Central  Sudan,  and  a  party,  under  the  leadership  of 
Bishop  Tugwell,  after  a  very  chequered  experience, 
gained  a  foothold  in  the  country,  at  last  establishing  a 
station  for  a  while  in  the  little  town  of  Ghirku  (1900), 
the  little  place  in  which  seven  years  before,  Walter 
Gowans,  the  pioneer  missionary  of  the  Sudan  Interior 
Mission,  had  laid  down  his  life." 

Closely  following  this  movement,  the  Sudan  Interior 
Mission  (Canadian)  established  its  first  station  at  Patagi, 
five  hundred  miles  up  the  Niger. 

In  the  Egyptian  Sudan,  the  United  Presbyterians  of 
America  would,  together  with  the  Church  Missionary 
Society,  have  entered  the  field  immediately  after  the 
overthrow  of  the  Khalifa  by  General  Kitchener,  but  they 
were  restrained  by  government  restrictions,  both  Lord 


Lon^itiid 


Abyssinia,  French.  British  and  Italfan  Scmaliland  have  a  combined  area  of  approx- 
imately  400,000    square    miles    and    a    population    of    10,700,000.      (See    pages    5,    sH,    71, 


THE  PIONEER  AND  HIS  TASK  211 

Cromer  and  General  Kitchener  opposing  missionary 
work  among  the  Moslems.  In  the  year  iqcxd  these  two 
societies  entered,  however,  Khartoum  and  Omdurman. 

In  the  year  1902,  the  government  having  withdrawn 
some  of  the  restrictions,  the  Presbyterians  pushed  on  up 
the  Nile  and  opened  a  station  at  Dolaib  Hill,  on  the 
Sobat  River,  where  they  have  been  working  among  the 
pagan  tribes  ever  since. 

More  recently,  the  Church  Missionary  Society  has 
also  extended  its  work,  opening  a  mission  among  the 
Dinkas,  and  the  German  Sudan  Pioneer  Mission  has 
begun  work  at  Assuan. 

The  most  recent  attempt  at  missionary  work  in  tlie 
western  Sudan  has  been  made  by  a  British  undenomina- 
tional Society  known  as  the  Sudan  United  Mission.  The 
first  party  of  missionaries  reached  the  Niger  in  1904. 
Arriving  several  years  after  the  British  occupation,  they 
were  able,  without  delay,  to  commence  operations  in  the 
Benue  district  of  Northern  Nigeria. 

All  future  effort  in  the  Sudan,  therefore,  should  be 
made  with  due  consideration  of  the  plans  and  the  spheres 
of  activity  of  these  several  established  missions.  Yet, 
there  is  doubtless  room  for  new  enterprise. 

British  Somaliland  can  best  be  studied  and  perhaps 
reached  from  Aden  as  a  base.  Constant  communication 
exists  between  the  towns  of  Berbera  and  Zeila  with  the 
Arabian  coast  by  native  boats,  and  Aden  has  a  con- 
siderable Somali  population.  The  two  important  centers 
in  French  Somaliland  are  Obock  and  Jibuti,  the  latter  the 
railway  terminus.  Italian  Somaliland  offers  greater  diffi- 
culties, and  the  population  here,  too,  is  nomad  and  sparse. 
We  omit  mention  of  the  other  unoccupied  fields  in  this 


212  THE  UNOCCUPIfiD  MISSION  FIELDS 

connection.     Each  has  its  own  environment  of  occupied 
centers  and  missions. 

The  task  of  the  pioneer  in  none  of  them  will  prove 
easy.  Nor  will  it  be  possible  to  occupy  the  regions  be- 
yond, in  Malaysia  and  Melanesia,  without  paying  the 
price.  The  pioneer  must  catch  the  vision,  count  the  cost, 
and  then  not  turn  his  hand  from  the  plow  to  look  back. 
His  is  the  glorious  inheritance  of  those  who  tried  and 
failed,  of  those  who  fought  and  fell.  He  marches  to 
"The  Song  of  the  Dead"  and  marches  to  victory : 

"We  were  dreamers,  dreaming  greatly,  in  the  man-stifled  town ; 
We  yearned  beyond  the  sky-line  where  the   strange  roads  go 

down. 
Came  the  Whisper,  came  the  Vision,  came  the  Power  with  the 

Need, 
Till  the  Soul  that  is  not  man's  soul  was  lent  us  to  lead. 

"As  the  deer  breaks — as  the  steer  breaks — from  the  herd  where 

they  graze, 
In  the  faith  of  little  children  we  went  on  our  ways. 
Then  the  wood  failed — then  the  food  failed — then  the  last  water 

dried — 
In  the  faith  of  little  children  we  laid  down  and  died. 

"On  the  sand-drift — on  the  velt-side — in  the  fern-scrub  we  lay. 
That  our  sons  might  follow  after  by  the  bones  on  the  way. 
Follow  after — follow  after!     We  have  watered  the  root, 
And  the  bud  has  come  to  blossom  that  ripens  for  fruit! 

"Follow  after — we  are  waiting,  by  the  trails  that  we  lost. 
For  the  sound  of  many  footsteps,  for  the  tread  of  a  host. 
Follow  after — follow  after — for  the  harvest  is  sown : 
By  the  bones  about  the  wayside  ye  shall  come  to  your  own !"" 

^Rttdyard  Kiplinr,  "The  Song  of  the  Dead." 


THE  GLORY  OF  THE  IMPOSSIBLE 


«3 


"We  have  a  Gofl  who  delights  in  impossihilities." 

— Andrew  Murray. 

"You  do  not  test  the  resources  of  God  till  you  try  the  impos- 
sible." 

— F.  B.  Meyer. 

"God  loves  with  a  great  love  the  man  whose  heart  is  bursting 
with  a  passion  for  the  impossible." 

—William  Booth. 

"The  things  that  are  impossible  with  men  are  possible  with 
God."  "Face  it  out  to  the  end;  cast  away  every  shadow  of  hope 
on  the  human  side  as  a  positive  hindrance  to  the  Divine;  heap 
the  difficulties  together  recklessly,  and  pile  on  as  many  more 
as  you  can  find;  you  cannot  get  beyond  that  blessed  climax  of 
impossibility.  Let  faith  swing  out  to  Him.  He  is  the  God  of 
the  impossible." 

—I.  Lilias  Trotter,  "The  Glory  of  the  Impossible." 


«I4 


Chapter  VIII 
THE  GLORY  OF  THE  IMPOSSIBLE 

The  Anglo-Saxons,  some  one  has  remarked,  have  al- 
ways had  of  their  number  those  who  loved  to  creep  on  a 
little  beyond  the  margin  of  the  traveled  world ;  men  to 
whom  beaten  tracks  were  a  burden  and  to  whom  "free  air 
to  the  windward  was  ever  more  than  new-found  territory, 
however  rich."  The  search  for  the  sources  of  the  Nile, 
the  penetration  of  Asia,  and  the  attempts  to  discover  the 
Poles  are  illustrations  of  this  spirit.  Returning  from  his 
south  polar  expedition,  and  replying  to  a  toast  at  the 
Royal  Societies  Club,  Sir  Ernest  Shackelton  voiced  the 
sentiment  of  such  hearts  when  he  said :  "When  once 
men  have  been  out  beyond  those  parts  of  the  world  which 
are  known  to  men,  there  is  an  indescribable  call  to  their 
hearts  to  return — a  call  more  appealing  than  that  of  Lon- 
don or  of  the  pleasures  and  luxuries  of  life.  I  have 
spoken  to  my  companions  since  they  are  back  in  this 
country,  and  have  found  that  they  are  tired  of  it  and 
ready  to  go  back  to  the  Antartic.  There  is  in  the  ice 
and  in  the  wild  that  'luring  of  the  little  voices'  of  which 
the  Canadian  poet  spoke : 

"They'ra   wanting   me,   they're   calling    me,    the   awful   lonesome 
places, 
They  are  whining,  they  are  whimpering,  as  if  each  one  had  a 
soul; 

215 


2l6  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

They  arc  calling   from  the  wilderness,  the  vast  and   God-like 

spaces, 
The  stern  and  sullen  solitudes  that  sentinel  the  Pole." 

It  is  the  glory  of  the  untrodden  path,  the  distant  goal, 
the  difficult  journey,  the  impossible  achievement  that 
lures  the  explorer  back  again  and  again  to  his  unfinished 
task.  Sven  Hedin  writes  that  he  was  uncomfortable  and 
ill  at  ease  when  he  reached  Peking  again  after  crossing 
Asia;  and  when  there  were  two  easy  and  comfortable 
routes  back  to  Sweden,  he  chose  the  hardships  of  an  over- 
land journey  by  a  third  new  pathway.^ 

When  Dr.  Susie  Rijnhart  tells  of  her  four  years'  resi- 
dence and  travel  among  the  Tibetans— -of  terrible  hard- 
ships and  loneliness,  hunger  and  thirst,  dangers  from  rob- 
bers and  ruffians; — tells  of  that  darkest  day,  when  they 
buried  their  one-year-old  boy,  his  coffin  an  empty  drug 
box,  in  the  great  Forbidden  Land,  "rolling  a  large  boulder 
over  the  grave  to  keep  wild  animals  from  digging  it  up ;" 
— tells  how  Mr.  Rijnhart  was  murdered  and  how  she,  lost 
and  alone  at  the  mercy  of  wicked  Tibetan  guides,  reached 
friends  at  last; — one  would  expect  a  note  of  discourage- 
ment, but  she  closes  her  book  with  these  words  of 
triumph : 

**Was  the  cause  worth  the  suffering  and  have  results 
justified  it?  Critics  of  missions  ask  it — those  who  lift 
up  their  hands  of  disapproval,  when  a  life  is  given  for  the 
sake  of  the  Gospel,  yet  lustily  applaud  the  soldier  who 
spills  his  blood  on  the  battlefield  in  the  cause  of  terri- 
torial expansion  or  national  aggrandizement.  To  such, 
it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  Christ  also  has  his  soldiers  who 

'Sven  Hedin,  "Through  Asia,"  Vol.  II,  1234-1238.  Cf.  the  remark  of 
Captain  Stigand  on  the  fascination  of  the  unexplored  corners  of  Africa  in 
"To  Abyssinia  Through  an  Unknown  Land,"  17. 


THE    GLORY    OF    TIIK    I  Nf  POSSIBLE  217 

are  willing  to  die  for  His  cause  if  need  be,  in  the  belief 
that  His  cause  is  the  subliniest  among  men,  and  who 
are  content  to  leave  the  results  with  Him.  .  .  .  Kind  Chris- 
tian friends  have  questioned  our  wisdom  in  entering  Tibet. 
Why  not  have  waited,  they  ask,  until  Tibet  was  opened 
by  'the  powers,'  so  that  missionaries  could  go  under 
government  protection  ?  There  is  much  heart  in  the  ques- 
tion but  little  logic.  Christ  does  not  tell  His  disciples 
to  wait,  but  to  go.  We  are  not  to  choose  conditions,  but 
to  meet  them.  The  early  apostles  did  not  wait  until  the 
Roman  Empire  was  'opened.'  .  .  .  Persecutions  came 
upon  them  from  every  side,  but  nothing,  save  death,  could 
hinder  their  progress  or  silence  their  message.  ...  So  it 
has  ever  been  in  the  history  of  Christianity.  Had  the 
missionaries  waited  till  all  countries  w'ere  ready  and  will- 
ing to  receive  them,  so  that  they  could  go  forth  without 
danger  or  sacrifice,  England  might  still  have  been  the 
home  of  barbarians.  Livingstone's  footsteps  would  never 
have  consecrated  the  African  wilderness,  there  would 
have  been  no  Carey  in  India,  the  South  Sea  Islanders 
would  still  be  sunk  in  their  cannibalism,  and  the  thou- 
sands of  Christians  found  in  pagan  lands  would  still  be 
in  the  darkness  and  shadow  of  death.  .  .  .  The  work  is 
great.  So  great  that,  beside  its  greatness,  any  sacrifice 
involved  in  its  accomplishment  is  small."*  Such  words 
put  a  halo  of  glory  over  "the  lone  little  grave  under  the 
huge  boulder  at  the  base  of  Dang  La,"  and  make  us  feel 
that  "God  loves  with  a  great  love  the  man,  or  woman, 
whose  heart  is  bursting  with  a  passion  for  the  impossible." 
If  Tertullian  could  say  of  certain  doctrines,  "Credo 
quia  impossibile  est/'  shall  not  we,  face  to  face  with 
all   the  staggering  difficulties  of  the   unoccupied  fields, 

•S.  C.    Riinharf,  "With   the  Tibel?n5  in  Tfnt  and  Temple."  393-305. 


2l8  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

but  also  firm  in  a  supernatural  faith  like  his,  echo  the 
words :  "I  believe  because  it  is  impossible?"'^  Such  faith 
removes  mountains,  bursts  through  impossible  barriers, 
and  snatches  victory  from  the  jaws  of  defeat.  "There  is 
no  open  door  for  the  Gospel,"  writes  a  missionary,  in  his 
loneliness  at  Kashgar,  in  the  heart  of  Asia — "there  is  no 
open  door  for  the  Gospel.  No,  there  is  death  and  hardly 
any  spiritual  life  as  far  as  I  know.  But  that  very 
fact  must  strongly  remind  us,  that  this  very  field  needs 
men  filled  with  the  Spirit  and  power  who  may  go  there 
to  open  the  doors  for  the  Gospel  and  bring  life  to  the 
dead."2 

The  greater  the  difficulties,  the  greater  is  the  glory  of 
overcoming  them.  Is  Afghanistan  sealed  against  the 
entrance  of  the  Christian  missionary?  Or  is  the  land 
only  waiting  for  those  who  will  pay  the  price  of  bursting 
its  barriers  ? 

Listen  to  the  story  of  the  conversion  and  martyrdom 
of  Abdul  Karim,  the  Afghan  conveit:  With  a  real 
devotion  to  Christ,  he  was  taken  with  the  intense 
desire.,  in  the  summer  of  1907.  to  enter  Afghanistan 
and  preach  the  Gospel.  Crossing  the  frontier  at  Chaman, 
he  was  seized  by  Afghan  soldiers,  brought  before  the 
Governor  of  Kandahar,  offered  rewards  and  honors 
if  he  would  recant,  and  when  he  refused,  was  cast 
into  prison,  loaded  with  chains.  He  was  examined 
by  the  Amir,  but  remained  firm  in  his  confession.  Then 
he  was  marched  off  for  Kabul  in  chains,  with  a  bit  and 
bridle  in  his  mouth,  while  every  Mohammedan  who 
met  him   smote  him  on   the   cheeks  and   abused  him. 


^Tertullian,  de  Came  Christi,  Sec.  4.     "Certum  est  quia  impossibile." 
'Letter  from   L.   E.    Hogberg  to  Commission  No.    i,  World  Missionary 
Conference,  Edinburgh,  1910. 


THE  r.LUKY  OF  Till:  I M  i'ussihi.l:  219 

Finally,  when  he  was  set  at  liberty,  he  tried  to  find  his 
way  back  to  India,  was  seized  by  the  people  in  a  village, 
carried  to  their  mosque,  and  ordered  to  repeat  the  Mos- 
lem creed.  Abdul  Karim  refused.  "A  sword  was  then 
produced  and  his  right  arm  cut  off,  and  he  was  again 
ordered  to  repeat  it,  but  again  refused.  The  left  arm 
was  then  severed  in  the  same  way,  and  on  his  refusing 
the  third  time,  his  throat  was  cut.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
whatever  the  details  of  his  martyrdom  may  be,  Abdul 
Karim  witnessed  faithfully  to  the  last  for  the  Saviour 
Christ,  and  died  because  he  would  not  deny  Him.  There 
are  many  secret  disciples  in  Afghanistan  who  honor  Christ 
as  we  do,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  at  the  present  time 
a  public  acknowledgment  of  Christianity  would  mean  a 
cruel  death.  At  the  same  time,  I  believe  that  the  Church 
in  Afghanistan  will  not  be  established  till  there  have 
been  many  such  martyrs,  who  will  seal  their  faith  with 
their  blood.'" 

Must  only  Afghan  converts,  however,  seal  their 
testimony  with  their  life,  or  will  missionaries  also  go  and 
take  possession,  if  need  be,  by  winning  the  crown  of  mar- 
tyrdom for  the  King?  If  Afghanistan  were  an  island  in 
the  South  Seas,  would  there  be  no  John  Williams,  no 
Bishop  Patteson? 

The  challenge  of  the  unoccupied  fields  of  the  world  is 
one  to  great  faith  and,  therefore,  to  great  sacrifice.  Our 
willingness  to  sacrifice  for  an  enterprise  is  always  in 
proportion  to  our  faith  in  that  enterprise.  Faith  has  the 
genius  of  transforming  the  barely  possible  into  actuality. 
Once  men  are  dominated  by  the  conviction  that  a  thing 
must  be  done,  they  will  stop  at  nothing  until  it  is  ac- 
complished.    We  have   our   "marching  orders,"   as   the 

'T.  L.  Penndl,  "Among  the  Wild  Tribes  of  the  Afghan  Frontier,"  393-195. 


220  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

Iron  Duke  said,  and  because  our  Commander-in-Chief 
is  not  absent  but  with  us,  the  impossible  becomes  not  only 
practical  but  imperative.  Charles  Spurgeon,  preaching 
from  the  text,  "All  power  is  given  unto  Me.  .  .  .  Lo  I  am 
with  you  alway,"  used  these  words:  **You  have  a  factor 
here  that  is  absolutely  infinite,  and  what  does  it  matter 
as  to  what  other  factors  may  be.  *I  will  do  as  much  as 
I  can,'  says  one.  Any  fool  can  do  that.  He  that  be- 
lieves in  Christ  does  what  he  can  not  do,  attempts  the 
impossible  and  performs  it."^ 

Frequent  set-backs  and  apparent  failure  never  dis- 
heartened the  real  pioneer.  Occasional  martyrdoms  are 
only  a  fresh  incentive.  Opposition  is  a  stimulus  to 
greater  activity.  Great  victory  has  never  been  pos- 
sible without  great  sacrifice.  If  the  winning  of  Port 
Arthur  required  human  bullets,^  we  cannot  expect  to 
carry  the  Port  Arthurs  and  Gibraltars  of  the  non- 
Christian  world  without  loss  of  life.  Does  it  really  mat- 
ter how  many  die  or  how  much  money  we  spend  in 
opening  closed  doors,  and  in  occupying  the  different 
fields,  if  we  really  believe  that  missions  are  warfare  and 
that  the  King's  glory  is  at  stake?  War  always  means 
blood  and  treasure.  Our  only  concern  should  be  to  keep 
the  fight  aggressive  and  to  win  victory  regardless  of 
cost  or  sacrifice.  The  unoccupied  fields  of  the  world 
must  have  their  Calvary  before  they  can  have  their  Pente- 
cost. Raymund  Lull,  the  first  missionary  to  the  Mos- 
lem world,  expressed  the  same  thought  in  medieval  lan- 
guage when  he  wrote:  "As  a  hungry  man  makes  dis- 

'Sermon  on  "Our  Omnipotent  Leader,"  in  The  Evangelisation  of  the 
World,  London,  1887. 

'"Human  Bullets,"  a  novel  by  Tadayoshi  Sakurai.  The  experience  of  a 
Japanese  officer  at  Port  Arthur  and  a  revelation  of  Japanese  patriotism  and 

obedience. 


THE    GLORY    OF    THE    IMPOSSIBLE  221 

patch  and  takes  large  morsels  on  account  of  his  great 
hunger,  so  Thy  servant  feels  a  great  desire  to  die  that 
he  may  glorify  Thee.  He  hurries  day  and  night  to  com- 
plete his  work  in  order  that  he  may  give  up  his  blood 
and  his  tears  to  be  shed  for  Thee."^ 

The  unoccupied  fields  of  the  world  await  those  who 
are  willing  to  be  lonely  for  the  sake  of  Christ.  To  the 
pioneer  missionary  the  words  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
to  the  apostles  when  He  showed  them  His  hands  and 
His  feet,  come  with  special  force:  "As  my  Father  hath 
sent  Me,  even  so  send  I  you."-  He  came  into  the  world, 
and  it  was  a  great  unoccupied  mission  field.  "He  came 
unto  His  own,  and  His  own  received  Him  not."^  He 
came  and  His  welcome  was  derision.  His  life  suffering, 
and  His  throne  the  Cross.  As  He  came.  He  expects  us 
to  go.  We  must  follow  in  His  footprints.  The  pioneer 
missionary,  in  overcoming  the  obstacles  and  difficulties 
enumerated  in  Chapter  HI,  has  the  privilege  not  only  of 
knowing  Christ  and  the  power  of  His  resurrection,  but 
also  something  of  the  fellowship  of  His  suffering.  For 
the  people  of  Tibet  or  Somaliland,  Mongolia  or  Af- 
ghanistan, Arabia  or  Nepal,  the  Sudan  or  Abyssinia, 
he  may  be  called  to  say  with  Paul,  "Now  I  rejoice 
in  my  sufferings  for  you  and  fill  to  the  brim  the 
penury  of  the  afflictions  of  Christ  in  my  flesh  for  His 
body's  sake  which  is  the  Church."*  What  is  it  but  the 
glory  of  the  impossiHe!  Who  would  naturally  prefer  to 
leave  the  warmth  and  comfort  of  hearth  and  home  and  the 
love  of  the  family  circle  to  go  after  a  lost  sheep,  whose 

^Lull's  "Liber  de  Contemplations  in  Deo,"  in  S.  M.  Zwcmer'i  "Raymund 
Lull,"    132. 
'John  20:21. 
•John   I :  II. 
*Greek  Text,  Col.    1:24.     Cf.   Luke  21:4  and  Mark   12:44. 


222  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

cry  we  have  faintly  heard  in  the  howling  of  the  tempest? 
Yet  such  is  the  glory  of  the  task  that  neither  home-ties 
nor  home  needs  can  hold  back  those  who  have  caught  the 
vision  and  the  spirit  of  the  Great  Shepherd.  Because 
the  lost  ones  are  His  sheep,  and  He  has  made  us  His 
shepherds  and  not  His  hirelings,  we  must  bring  them 
back. 

"Although  the  road  be  rough  and  steep 
I  go  to  the  desert  to  find  my  sheep." 

"There  is  nothing  finer  nor  more  pathetic  to  me,"  says 
Dr.  Forsyth,  "than  the  way  in  which  missionaries  un- 
learn the  love  of  the  old  home,  die  to  their  native  land, 
and  wed  their  hearts  to  the  people  they  have  served  and 
won;  so  that  they  cannot  rest  in  England,  but  must  re- 
turn to  lay  their  bones  where  they  spent  their  hearts  for 
Christ.  How  vulgar  the  common  patriotisms  seem  be- 
side this  inverted  home-sickness,  this  passion  of  a  king- 
dom which  has  no  frontiers  and  no  favored  race,  the 
passion  of  a  homeless  Christ  !"^ 

James  Gilmour  in  Mongolia,  David  Livingstone  in 
Central  Africa,  Grenfell  on  the  Congo,  Keith  Falconer 
in  Arabia,  Dr.  Rijnhart  and  Miss  Annie  Taylor  in  Tibet, 
Chalmers  in  New  Guinea,  Morrison  in  China,  Henry 
Martyn  in  Persia,  and  all  the  others  like  them  had  this 
"inverted  home-sickness,"  this  passion  to  call  that  coun- 
try their  home  which  was  most  in  need  of  the  Gospel. 
In  this  passion  all  other  passions  died ;  before  this  vision 
all  other  visions  faded ;  this  call  drowned  all  other  voices. 
They  were  the  pioneers  of  the  Kingdom,  the  forelopers 
of  God,  eager  to  cross  the  border-marches  and  discover 

*P.  T.  Forsyth,  "Missions  in  State  and  Church,"  36. 


THE    GLORY   OF   THE    IMPOSSIBLE  223 

new  lands  or  win  new  empire.     Of  such  Kipling's  song 
reminds  us : 

"The  gull  shall  whistle  in  his  wake,  the  blind  wave  break  in  fire, 
He  shall  fulfil  God's  utmost  will,  unknowing  His  desire; 
And  he  shall  see  new  planets  pass  and  alien  stars  arise, 
And  give  the  gale  his  reckless  sail  in  shadow  of  new  skies. 

"Strong  lust  of  gear  shall  drive  him  out  and  hunger  arm  his  hand 
To  wring  his  food  from  a  desert  nude,  his  foothold  from  the 

sand. 
His  neighbor's  smoke  shall  vex  his  eyes,  their  voices  break  his 

rest, 
He  shall  go  forth  till  South  is  North,  sullen  and  dispossessed; 

"And  he  shall  desire  loneliness,  and  his  desire  shall  bring 
Hard  on  his  heels  a  thousand  wheels,  a  people,  and  a  king; 
And  he  shall  come  back  in  his  old  track,  and  by  his  scarce,  cool 

camp; 
There  he  shall  meet  the  roaring  street,  the  derrick,  and  the  stamp, 

"For  he  must  blaze  a  nation's  ways  with  hatchet  and  with  brand 
Till  on  his  last  won  wilderness  an  Empire's  bulwarks  stand."^ 

These  forelopers  of  God  went  not  with  hatchet  and 
brand,  but  with  the  sword  of  the  Spirit  and  with  the  fire 
of  Truth  they  went  and  blazed  the  way  for  those  tliat 
follow  after.  Their  scars  were  the  seal  of  their  apostle- 
ship,  and  they  gloried  also  in  tribulation.  Like  the  pioneer 
Apostle,  "always  bearing  about  in  the  body  the  dying  of 
the  Lord  Jesus,"  and  approving  themselves  "as  ministers 
of  God  in  stripes,  in  imprisonments,  in  tumults.,  in  watch- 
ings,  in  fastings." 

"Christ  the  Son  of  God  hath  sent  me 
To  the  midnight  lands ; 
Mine  the  mighty  ordination 
Of  the  pierced  hands." 

^Rudyard  Kipling,  "The  Forelopcr." 


224  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

Thomas  Valpy  French,  Bishop  of  Lahore,  whom  Dr. 
Eugene  Stock  called  "the  most  distinguished  of  all 
Church  Missionary  Society  missionaries,"  had  the  real 
pioneer  spirit  and  knew  the  glory  of  the  impossible.  Af- 
ter forty  years  of  labors  abundant  and  fruitful  in  India, 
he  resigned  his  bishopric  and  planned  to  reach  the  in- 
terior of  Arabia  with  the  Gospel.  He  was  an  intellectual 
and  spiritual  giant.  ''To  live  with  him  was  to  drink  in 
an  atmosphere  that  was  spiritually  bracing.  As  the  air 
of  the  Engadine  is  to  the  body,  so  was  his  intimacy  to  the 
soul.  It  was  an  education  to  be  with  him.  There  was 
nothing  that  he  thought  a  man  should  not  yield — ^home 
or  wife  or  health — if  God's  call  was  apparent.  But  then 
every  one  knew  that  he  only  asked  of  them  what  he  him- 
self had  done  and  was  always  doing."  And  when 
Mackay,  of  Uganda,  in  his  remarkable  plea  for  a  mission 
to  the  Arabs  of  Oman  called  for  "half  a  dozen  young 
men,  the  pick  of  the  English  universities,  to  make  the 
venture  in  faith,"^  this  lion-hearted  veteran  of  sixty-six 
years  responded  alone.  It  was  the  glory  of  the  impossible. 
Yet  from  Muscat  he  wrote  shortly  before  his  death : 

"If  I  can  get  no  faithful  servant  and  guide  for  the  journey 
into  the  interior,  well  versed  in  dealing  with  Arabs  and  getting 
needful  common  supplies  (I  want  but  little),  I  may  try  Bahrein, 
or  Hodeidah  and  Sana,  and  if  that  fails,  the  north  of  Africa 
again,  in  some  highland ;  for  without  a  house  of  our  own  the 
climate  would  be  insufferable  for  me — at  least  during  the  very 
hot  months — and  one's  work  would  be  at  a  standstill.  But  I 
shall  not  give  up,  please  God,  even  temporarily,  my  plans  for  the 
interior,  unless,  all  avenues  being  closed,  it  would  be  sheer  mad- 
ness to  attempt  to  carry  them  out."^ 

*T  shall  not  give  up" — and  he  did  not  till  he  died.    Nor 

*Mrs.  J.   W.  Harrison,   "Mackay  of   Uganda,"   417-430. 
^S.   M.  Zwemer,  "Arabia,  the  Cradle  of  Islam,"  350. 


1  -.V  ' 


^   a 


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it; 


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THE    GLORY    OF   THE    IMPOSSIBLE  225 

will  the  Church  of  Christ  give  up  the  work  for  which 
he  and  others  like  him  laid  down  their  lives  in  Oman. 
It  goes  on. 

"O  Eastcrn-lovcr  from  the  West ; 

Thou  hast  out-soared  these  prisoning  bars; 
Thy  memory,  on  thy  Master's  breast,  > 

Uplifts  us  Hke  the  beckoning  stars. 
We  follow  now  as  thou  hast  led; 
Baptize  us,  Saviour,  for  the  dead." 

The  unoccupied  provinces  of  Arabia  and  the  Sudan 
await  men  with  the  spirit  of  Bishop  French.  For  the 
ambition  to  reach  out  from  centers  already  occupied  to 
regions  beyond,  even  when  those  very  centers  are  under- 
manned and  in  need  of  reinforcement,  is  not  Quixotic 
or  fantastic,  but  truly  apostolic.  "Yea,  so  have  I  been 
ambitious,"  said  Paul,  "to  preach  the  Gospel  not  where 
Christ  was  already  named,  lest  I  should  build  on  another 
man's  foundation ;  but  as  it  is  written.  They  shall  see 
to  whom  no  tidings  of  Him  came,  and  they  who  have 
not  heard  shall  understand."  He  wrote  this  when  leaving 
a  city  as  important  as  Corinth,  and  goes  on  to  state  that 
this  is  the  reason  why  he  did  not  yet  visit  Rome,  but  that 
he  hopes  to  do  so  on  his  way  to  Spain  !^  If  the  uttermost 
confines  of  the  Roman  Empire  were  part  of  his  program 
who  had  already  preached  Christ  from  Jerusalem  to 
Illyricum  in  the  first  century,  we  surely,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  twentieth  century,  should  have  no  less  ambition  to 
enter  every  unoccupied  field  that  "they  may  see  to  whom 
no  tidings  came  and  that  those  who  have  not  heard  may 
understand." 

"There  is  no  instance  of  an  Apostle  being  driven  abroad 

'Romans   is:20-J4. 


226  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

under  the  compulsion  of  a  bald  command.  Each 
one  went  as  a  lover  to  his  betrothed  on  his  ap- 
pointed errand.  It  was  all  instinctive  and  natural.  They 
were  equally  controlled  by  the  common  vision,  but  they 
had  severally  personal  visions  which  drew  them  whither 
they  were  needed.  In  the  first  days  of  Christianity,  there 
is  an  absence  of  the  calculating  spirit.  Most  of  the 
Apostles  died  outside  of  Palestine,  though  human  logic 
would  have  forbidden  them  to  leave  the  country  until  it 
had  been  Christianized.  The  calculating  instinct  is  death 
to  faith,  and  had  the  Apostles  allowed  it  to  control  their 
motives  and  actions,  they  would  have  said:  'The  need 
in  Jerusalem  is  so  profound,  our  responsibilities  to  people 
of  our  own  blood  so  obvious,  that  we  must  live  up  to  the 
principle  that  charity  begins  at  home.  After  we  have 
won  the  people  of  Jerusalem,  of  Judea  and  of  the  Holy 
Land  in  general,  then  it  will  be  time  enough  to  go  abroad ; 
but  our  problems,  political,  moral  and  religious,  are  so 
unsolved  here  in  this  one  spot  that  it  is  manifestly  absurd 
to  bend  our  shoulders  to  a  new  load.'  "^ 

It  was  the  bigness  of  the  task  and  its  difficulty  that 
thrilled  the  early  Church.  Its  apparent  impossibility 
was  its  glory,  its  world-wide  character  its  grandeur. 
The  same  is  true  to-day.  *T  am  happy,"  wrote  Neesima 
of  Japan,  "in  a  meditation  on  the  marvelous  growth  of 
Christianity  in  the  world,  and  believe  that  if  it  finds  any 
obstacles  it  will  advance  still  faster  and  swifter  even  as 
the  stream  runs  faster  when  it  finds  any  hindrances  on 
its  course."^ 

He  that  ploweth  the  virgin  soil  should  plow  in  hope. 
God  never  disappoints   His  husbandmen.     The  harvest 

^C    H.  Brent,  "Adventure  for  God,"  11-12. 

'R.  E.  Speer,  "Missionary  Principles  and  Practice,"  541. 


THE    GLORY    OF   THE    IMPOSSIBLE  22/ 

always  foilows  the  seed  time.  "When  we  first  came  to 
our  field,"  writes  missionary  Hogberg  from  Central  Asia, 
"it  was  impossible  to  gather  even  a  few  people  to  hear  the 
glad  tidings  of  the  Gospel.  We  could  not  gather  any 
children  for  school.  We  could  not  spread  gospels  or 
tracts.  When  building  the  new  station,  we  also  had  a 
little  chapel  built.  Then  we  wondered,  Will  this  room 
ever  be  filled  up  with  Moslems  listening  to  the  Gospel  ? 
Our  little  chapel  has  been  filled  with  hearers  and  still 
a  larger  room!  Day  after  day  we  may  preach  as  much 
as  we  have  strength  to,  and  the  Moslems  no  longer  object 
to  listen  to  the  Gospel  truth.  'Before  your  coming  hither 
no  one  spoke  or  thought  of  Jesus  Christ,  now  ever>'where 
one  hears  His  name,*  a  Mohammedan  said  to  me.  At  the 
beginning  of  our  work  they  threw  away  the  Gospels  or 
burnt  them,  or  brought  them  back  again ; — now  they  buy 
them,  kiss  the  books,  and  touching  it  to  the  forehead  and 
pressing  it  to  the  heart,  they  show  the  highest  honor  that 
a  Moslem  can  show  a  book."^ 

But  the  pioneer  husbandman  must  have  long  patience. 
When  Judson  was  lying  loaded  with  chains  in  a  Burmese 
dungeon,  a  fellow  prisoner  asked  with  a  sneer  about  the 
prospect  for  the  conversion  of  the  heathen.  Judson 
calmly  answered,  "The  prospects  are  as  bright  as  are 
the  promises  of  God."^  There  is  scarcely  a  country  to- 
day which  is  not  as  accessible,  or  where  the  difficulties 
are  greater,  than  was  the  case  in  Burma  when  Judson 
faced  them  and  overcame. 

The  prospects  for  the  evangelization  of  all  the  unoccu- 
pied fields  are  "as  bright  as  the  promises  of  God."  Why 
should  we  longer  wait  to  evangelize  them?     "The  evan- 

*Lttter    to    Commission    No.    i,    World    Missionary    Conference,    Edin- 
burgh, 1910. 
•A.  J.   Brown,  "The  Foreign  Missionary,"  374. 


228  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

gelization  of  the  world  in  this  generation  is  no  play-word," 
says  Robert  E.  Speer.  *'It  is  no  motto  to  be  bandied 
about  carelessly.  The  Evangelization  of  the  World  in 
this  Generation  is  the  summons  of  Jesus  Christ  to  every 
one  of  the  disciples  to  lay  himself  upon  a  cross,  himself 
to  walk  in  the  footsteps  of  Him  who,  though  He  was 
rich,  for  our  sakes  became  poor,  that  we  through  His 
poverty  might  be  rich,  himself  to  count  his  life  as  of  no 
account,  that  He  may  spend  it  as  Christ  spent  His  for 
the  redemption  of  the  world. "^  Who  will  do  this  for  the 
unoccupied  fields? 

The  student  volunteers  of  to-day  must  not  rest  satis- 
fied until  the  watchword,  peculiarly  their  own,  finds 
practical  application  for  the  most  neglected  and  difficult 
fields,  as  well  as  in  countries  where  the  harvest  is  ripe 
and  the  call  is  for  reapers  in  ever  increasing  numbers. 
The  plea  of  destitution  is  even  stronger  than  that  of 
opportunity.  Opportunism  is  not  the  last  word  in  mis- 
sions. The  open  door  beckons;  the  closed  door  chal- 
lenges him  who  has  a  right  to  enter.  The  unoccupied 
fields  of  the  world  have  therefore  a  claim  of  peculiar 
weight  and  urgency.  ''In  this  twentieth  century  of  Chris- 
tian history,  there  should  be  no  unoccupied  fields.  The 
Church  is  bound  to  remedy  the  lamentable  condition  Avith 
the  least  possible  delay."- 

The  unoccupied  fields,  therefore,  are  a  challenge  to 
all  whose  lives  are  unoccupied  by  that  which  is  highest 
and  best;  whose  lives  are  occupied  only  with  the  weak 
things  or  the  base  things  that  do  not  count.  There 
are  eyes  that  have  never  been  illumined  by  a  great 
vision,  minds  that  have  never  been  gripped  by  an  un- 

*R.   E.   Speer,    "Missionary   Principles  and   Practice,"    526. 
'Report  o{  World  Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgh,  1910,  Vol.  I. 


THE    GLORY    OF    THE    IMPOSSIBLE  229 

selfish  thought,  hearts  that  have  never  thrilled  with  pas- 
sion for  another's  wrong,  and  hands  that  have  never 
grown  weary  or  strong  in  lifting  a  great  burden.  To 
such  the  knowledge  of  these  Christless  millions  in  lands 
yet  unoccupied  should  come  like  a  new  call  from  Mace- 
donia»  and  a  startling  vision  of  God's  will  for  them.  As 
Bishop  Brent  remarks,  "We  never  know  what  measure 
vi  moral  capacity  is  at  our  disposal  until  we  try  to  ex- 
4)ress  it  in  action.  An  adventure  of  some  proportions  is 
not  uncommonly  all  that  a  young  man  needs  to  determine 
and  fix  his  manhood's  powers.'"  Is  there  a  more  heroic 
test  for  the  powers  of  manhood  than  pioneer  work  in 
the  mission  field?  Here  is  opportunity  for  those  who  at 
home  may  never  find  elbow-room  for  their  latent  capaci- 
ties, who  may  never  find  adequate  scope  elsewhere  for 
all  the  powers  of  their  minds  and  their  souls.  There  are 
hundreds  of  Christian  college  men  who  expect  to  spend 
life  in  practicing  law  or  in  some  trade  for  a  livelihood, 
yet  who  have  strength  and  talent  enough  to  enter  these 
unoccupied  fields.  There  are  young  doctors  who  might 
gather  around  them  in  some  new  mission  station  thou- 
sands of  those  who  "sufiFer  the  horrors  of  heathenism 
and  Islam,"  and  lift  their  burden  of  pain,  but  who  now 
confine  their  efforts  to  some  *'pent-up  Utica"  where  the 
healing  art  is  subject  to  the  law  of  competition  and  is 
measured  too  often  merely  in  terms  of  a  cash-book  and 
ledger.  They  are  making  a  living ;  they  might  be  making 
a  life. 

Bishop  Phillips  Brooks  once  threw  down  the  challenge 
of  a  big  task  in  these  words:  *'Do  not  pray  for  easy 
lives ;  pray  to  be  stronger  men.     Do  not  pray  for  tasks 

»C,  H.  Brent,  "Adventure  for  God,"  135, 


230  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

equal  to  your  powers ;  pray  for  powers  equal  to  your 
tasks.  Then  the  doing  of  your  work  shall  be  no  miracle, 
but  you  shall  be  a  miracle."^  He  could  not  have  chosen 
words  more  applicable  if  he  had  spoken  of  the  evangeliza- 
tion of  the  unoccupied  fields  of  the  world  with  all  their 
baffling  difficulties  and  their  glorious  impossibilities. 
God  can  give  us  power  for  the  task.  He  was  sufficient 
for  those  who  went  out  in  the  past,  and  is  sufficient  for 
those  who  go  out  to-day. 

Face  to  face  with  these  millions  in  darkness  and 
degradation,  knowing  the  condition  of  their  lives  on  the 
unimpeachable  testimony  of  those  who  have  visited  these 
countries,  this  great  unfinished  task,  this  unattempted 
task,  calls  to-day  for  those  who  are  willing  to  endure  and 
suffer  in  accomplishing  it. 

When  David  Livingstone  visited  Cambridge  Univer- 
sity, on  December  4,  1857,  he  made  an  earnest  ap- 
peal for  that  continent,  which  was  then  almost  wholly 
an  unoccupied  field.  His  words,  which  were  in  a  sense 
his  last  will  and  testament  for  college  men,  as  regards 
Africa,  may  well  close  this  book : 

"F.or  my  own  part,  I  have  never  ceased  to  rejoice  that 
God  has  appointed  me  to  such  an  office.  People  talk  of 
the  sacrifice  I  have  made  in  spending  so  much  of  my 
life  in  Africa.  Can  that  be  called  a  sacrifice  which  is 
simply  paid  back  as  a  small  part  of  a  great  debt  owing 
to  our  God,  which  we  can  never  repay?  Is  that  a 
sacrifice  which  brings  its  own  blest  reward  in  healthful 
activity,  the  consciousness  of  doing  good,  peace  of  mind, 
and  a  bright  hope  of  a  glorious  destiny  hereafter  ?  Away 
with  the  word  in  such  a  view,  and  with  such  a  thought ! 
It  is  emphatically  no  sacrifice.  Say  rather  it  is  a  privi- 
lege.   Anxiety,  sickness,  suffering,  or  danger,  now  and 

^Phillips  Brooks,   "Twenty  Sermons,"  330. 


THE   GLORY   OF  Till:    IMPOSSIBLE  23I 

then,  with  a  foregoing  of  the  common  conveniences 
and  charities  of  this  life,  may  make  us  pause,  and  cause 
the  spirit  to  waver,  and  the  soul  to  sink ;  but  let  this 
only  be  for  a  moment.  All  these  are  nothing  when  com- 
pared with  the  glory  which  shall  hereafter  be  revealed  in 
and  for  us.    I  never  made  a  sacrifice.     .     .     . 

"I  beg  to  direct  your  attention  to  Africa.  I  know  that 
in  a  few  years  I  shall  be  cut  ofif  in  that  country,  which 
is  now  open ;  do  not  let  it  be  shut  again !  I  go  back  to 
Africa  to  try  to  make  an  open  path  for  commerce  and 
Christianity ;  do  you  carry  out  the  work  which  I  have 
begun.     /  leave  it  with  you."^ 

*W.  G.  Blaikic,  "The  Personal  Life  of  David  Livingstone,"  343-244- 


APPENDICES 


333 


APPENDIX   A 

SELECT  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The  books  marked  thus  (*)  are  especially  recommended. 
AFRICA 

Abyssinia 

*Skinner,  R.  p. — Abyssinia  of  To-day,     New  York:  Longmans, 

Green  &  Co.,  1906. 
*Stigand,    C.    H. — To    Abyssinia   Through    an   Unknown    Land. 

London  :    Seeley  &  Co..  1910. 
Vivian,   H. — Abyssinia.     New  York:    Longmans,  Green  &  Co., 

1901. 
Wellby,  M.  S. — 'Twixt  Sirdar  and  Menelik.    New  York:   Harper 

&  Brothers,  1901. 
*Wylde,  a.  B. — Modern  Abyssinia.     London,  1900. 

Central  Africa 

-Ajichin,  a. — La  Guinee  Frangaise.     Paris,  1907. 
Balfour,   A. — First  Report  of  the  Wellcome   Research  Labora- 
tories at  the  Gordon  Memorial  College,  Khartum.     Khartum, 

1904. 
CoiLLARD,  F.—On  the  Threshold  of  Central  Africa.     New  York: 

American  Tract  Society,  1897. 
♦Dennett.  R.  E.— At  the  Back  of  the  Black  Man's  Mind.     New 

York:   The  Macmillan  Co.,  1906. 
Ferrand,  G. — Les  Mussulmans  a  Madagascar.     Paris,  1891. 
*Friedrich,  a.— Ins  Ir.nerste  Afnka.     Leipzig,  1909. 
♦Johnston,  Sir  H.   H. — George  Grenfell  and  the  Congo.    New 

York :   Daniel  Appleton  &  Co.,  1910. 
♦Lbonaed.  a.  G.— The  Lmver  Niger  and  Its  Tribes.     New  York : 

The  Macmillan  Co.,  1906. 
MCLNHOF,  C — Zwingt  uns  die  Heidenmission  Muhammedanernais- 

sion  zu  treiben?    Osterwieck,  1906. 
Nassau,  R.  H. — Fetichism  in  West  Africa.     New  York:    Charles 

Scribner's  Sons,  1904. 
Pa£TEIDGE,  C. — Cross  River  Natives.     London,  1905. 
Schillings,  C.  G.— In  Wildest  Africa.     New  York:    Harper  & 

Brothers,  1907. 

235 


236  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

Simon.  G.  K. — Die  Mohammedanische  Propaganda  und  die  cvan- 

gelische  Mission.    Leipzig,  1909. 
♦SwANN,  A.  J. — Fighting  the  Slave-Hunters  in  Central  Africa. 

Philadelphia:   J.  B.  Lippincott  Co.,  1910. 
Weiss,  M. — Die  Volkerstamme  im  Norden  Deutsch  Ost  Afrikas*. 

Berlin:   Carl  Marschner,  1910. 
WuERz,  F. — Die  Mohammedanische  Gcfahr  in  Westafrika.    Basel, 

1904. 

Sahara 

Barth,  H. — Travels  and  Discoveries  in  North  and  Central  Africa. 

London:   Ward,  1890. 
♦DuvEYRiER,  H. — Les  Touareg  du  Nord.     Paris,  1863. 
*Jean,  C. — Les  Tuareg  du  Sud-Est  L'Air.     Paris,  1909. 
♦Nachtigal,  G. — Sahara  und  Sudan.    Berlin,  1879. 
*R0HLFS,  G. — Quer  durch  Afrika.     Leipzig,  1874. 
♦ViscHER,  H. — Across  the  Sahara.    London:    Edward  Arnold, 

1910. 

Sudan 

Alford,  H.  L.  S.-^Egyptian  Sudani    New  York:  The  Macmillan 

Co.,  1898. 
Benhazera,  M.— Six  Mois  chez  les  Touareg  du  Ahaggar.    Al- 
giers :   A.  Jourdain,  1908. 
♦Budge,  E.  A.  W.— The  Egyptian  Sudan.     Philadelphia:    J.  B. 

Lippincott  Co.,  1907. 
BuLPETT,  C.  W.  L.— A   Picnic  Party  in  Wildest  Africa.    New 

York :   Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  1907. 
Churchill,  W.  S. — The  River  War.    London,  1902. 
*Gautier,  E.  F.,  &  R.  Chudeau. — Missions  au  Sahara,  Sahara 

Soudanais.    Paris :  Armand  Colin,  1909. 
*GiFFEN,  T.  K.— The  Egyptian  Sudan.    New  York:    Fleming  H. 

Revell  &  Co.,  1905. 
Guide  to  Egypt  and  the  Sudan.    New  York :  The  Macmillan  Co., 

1905. 
James,  F.  L.— Wild  Tribes  of  the  Sudan.     New  York:    Dodd, 

Mead  &  Co.,  1884. 
*KiNG,  W.  J.  H.~A  Search  for  the  Masked  Tawareks.    London, 

1905. 
KuMM,  H.  K  W.— The  Sudan.    London:    Marshall  Brothers, 

1906. 
Lenfant,  Capt. — Le  Niger.    Paris,  1904. 
Neufeldt,  C— a  Prisoner  of  the  KJialifa.    New  York:    G.  P. 

Putnam's  Sons,  1899. 
Peel,  Hon.  S.— The  Binding  of  the  Nile  and  the  New  Sudan. 

New  York :   Longmans,  Green  &  Co..  1904. 
*RoBiNsoN,  C.  H. — Hausaland-    London :  Low,  1896. 
*Slatin  Pasha,  R.  C.—Fire  and  Sword  in  the  Sudan.     New 

York:   John  Lane  Co.,  1895. 


A r pi: N nix  a  237 

Stee%tns.    G.    W.— With    Kitchener   to   Khartum.      New    York : 

Dodd.  Mead  &  Co.,  1898. 
♦Tangye.  H.  L.— In  the  Torrid  Sudan.     London:   John  Murray. 

1910. 
*ToQUE.  G. — Essai  sur  le  peuple  et  la  languc  Banda.     Paris,  1905- 
Traill.   H.   D.— Fnpland.    Egypt,   and  the   Sudan.     New  York: 

E.  P.  Button  &  Co.,  1900. 
Ward.   J. — Our   Sudan.     New   York :    Charles   Scribncr's   Sons, 

1905. 

SOMALILAND 

♦Herbert,   A. — Two  Dianas  in   Somaliland.     New  York:    John 

Lane  Co.,  1908. 
Jennings,  J.  W. — With  the  Abyssinians  in  Somaliland.    London, 

1905- 
MacNeill.  M.— In  Pursuit  of  the  Mad  Mullah.    London.  1902. 
Official  History  of  the  Operations  in  Somaliland.     Great  Britain 

War  Office,  London.  1901-04. 
*Peel,  C.  V.  A. — Somaliland.     London.  1903. 
SwAYNE.  H.  G.  C. — Seventeen  Trips  Through  Somaliland.    Lon- 
don, 1900. 

ASIA 
Afghanistan  and  Baluchistan 

Bellew,  H.  W. — Afghanistan  and  the  Afghans.     London.  1879. 

Bellew,  H.  W.— The  Races  of  Afghanistan.     London.  i88a 

Benn,  E.  F. — An  Overland  Trek  from  India,  the  Record  of  a 
Journey  from  Baluchistan  to  Europe.  New  York:  Long- 
mans. Green  &  Co.,  1910, 

Clt^zon,  G.  N. — Russia  in  Central  Asia.     London,  1889. 

Field.  C— With  the  Afghans.     London:   Marshall  Brothers,  1907. 

Forbes.  A. — The  Afghan  Wars.     London,  1892. 

Gore,  F.  St.  G. — Lights  and  Shades  of  Hill  Life  in  the  Afghan 
and  Hindu  Highlands  of  the  Punjab.     London,  1896. 

Gray,  T. — At  the  Court  of  the  Amir.  New  York:  The  Mac- 
millan  Co..  1901. 

♦Hamilton,  A. — Afghanistan.  New  York:  Charles  Scribncr's 
Sons,  1906. 

Holdich,  T.  H. — The  Indian  Borderland.     London,  19DI. 

♦Imperial  Gazetteer  of  India.  Afghanistan  and  Nepal.  Calcutta : 
Government  Printing,  1908. 

Lacoste.  Major  B.  de. — Around  Afghanistan.  New  York:  Dan- 
iel Appleton  &  Co.,  1909, 

MacFall,  C— With  the  Zhob  Field  Force.    London,  1895. 

MacMahon,  a.  H. — The  Southern  Borderlands  of  Afghanistan. 
Lcmdon,  1897. 


238  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION   FIELDS 

*Martin,  F.  a. — Under  the  Absolute  Amir.  New  York :  Harper 
&  Brothers,  1907. 

Noyce,  F. — England,  India  and  Afghanistan.    London,  1902. 

Robertson,  Sir  G.  S. — The  Kafirs  of  the  Hindoo  Kush.  London, 
1896. 

Sale,  G. — Journal  of  the  Disasters  in  Afghanistan  in  1841-42. 
London,  1843. 

Sultan,  Mahomed  Khan. — Constitution  and  Laws  of  Afghan- 
istan.   London,  1900. 

Sultan,  Mahomed  Khan. — The  Life  of  Abdur  Rahman,  Amir  of 
Afghanistan.     London,  1900. 

*Tate,  G.  p. — The  Frontiers  of  Baluchistan.  London:  Witherby 
&  Co.,  1909. 

♦Thornton,  E.  &  A. — Leaves  from  an  Afghan  Scrapbook.  Lon- 
don:  John  Murray,  1910. 

Wheeler,  S.  E.— The  Amir    Abdur  Rahman.     London,  1895. 

Yate,  a.  C. — Russia  and  England  Face  to  Face  in  Asia.  London, 
1887. 

Yate,  C.  E.— Northern  Afghanistan.    London,  1888. 

Arabia  (Mecca  and  Medina) 

Badla  y  Leblich. — Voyages  d'Ali  Bey  El  Abassi  en  Afriqu*  et  en 

Asie  pendant  les  annes,  1803-07.     Paris,  1814. 
*Bent,  T. — Southern  Arabia.     London,  1900. 
Buckingham,  J.  S. — Autobiography.     London,  1855. 
Burckhardt,  J.  L. — Travels  in  Arabia.    London,  1829. 
*BuRTON,  R.  F. — Pilgrimage  to  Al-Madinah  and  Mcccah.    Lon- 
don, 1893. 
Clark,  E.  L. — The  Arabs  and  the  Turks.    Boston. 
*Doughty,  C.  M. — Travels  in  Arabia  Deserta.     Cambridge,  1888. 
FiNATi,  G. — Narrative  of  the  Life  and  Adventures  of  Giovanni 

Finati.    London, .  1830. 
FoRDER,   A. — Ventures  Among  the  Arabs.     New  York:    Gospel 

Publishing  House,  1909. 
Gervais,  C. — Mon  Voyage  a  la  Mecque.     Paris,  1896. 
*Hogarth,  D.  G. — The  Penetration  of  Arabia.    New  York :  F.  A. 

Stokes  Co.,  1904. 
Hl^er,  C. — Journal  d'un  Voyage  en  Arable,  1883-84.    Paris,  1891. 
*Hurgronje,  C.  S. — Mekka.    The  Hague.  1889. 
Keane,  J.  F.— My  Journey  to  Medinah.    London,  1881. 
Keane,  J.  F. — Six  Months  in  Meccah.    London,  1881. 
Niebuhr,  C — Description  de  I'Arabie,  etc.     Amsterdam,  1774. 
PiTTS,  J. — Faithful  Account  of  the  Religion  and  Manners  of  the 

Mohametans.    London,  1810. 
Proust,  A. — L'Orientation   Nouvelle   de   la   Politique   Sanitaire. 

Paris,  1891. 
*Ralli,  A. — Christians  at  Mecca.    London:  William  Heinemann, 
..      1909- 


APPENDIX    A  239 

Roches.  L. — Trente-dcux  An<;  a  travcrs  I'lslain.     Paris.  1884-85. 

Sadler.  G.  F. — Diary  of  a  Journey  Across  Arabia.    Bombay,  1866. 

Seetzen,  U.  J. — Rciscn  durch  Syricn,  Palastina.  Phonicien.  die 
Transjordan-Lander,  Arabia  Petraea  und  Unter-yEgyptcn. 
Berlin.  1854-55. 

Vertom.\nnus.  L. — Navigation  and  Voyages  of  L.  Vertomannus. 
Hakliiyt's  Collection  of  Early  Voyages.     London.  1809. 

Von  Maltzan,  H.  F. — Meinc  Wallfahrt  nach  Mekka.  Leipzig, 
1865. 

Wild.  J. — Neuc  Reisebeschreibung  eines  gcfangenen  Christen  .  .  . 
insondcrheit  von  dcr  Tiirken  und  Araber  jahrlichen  Wall- 
fahrt von  Alcairo  nach  Mecha,  etc.     Niirembcrg,  1613. 

Zwemer,  S.  >L— Arabia:  the  Cradle  of  Islam,  New  York:  Flem- 
ing H.  Revell  &  Co..  1900. 

Chinese  Turkistan 

♦Hartmann,  Profes.sor  M.— Chinesisch-Turkestan,  Geschichte, 
Verwaltung.  Geistesleben  und  Wirtschaft,  Berlin. 

Landsdell. — Through  Chinese  Turkistan. 

Phibbs.  L  M. — A  Visit  to  the  Russians  in  Central  Asia.  Amster- 
dam, 1900. 

Schuyler,  E. — Turkistan.  New  York:  Charles  Scribner's  Sons, 
1901. 

Shoemaker,  M.  H.— Trans-Caspia.     Clarke. 

♦Stein,  M.  A. — Ancient  Khotan.     Oxford,  1907. 

Stein,  M.  A. — Sand-buried  Ruins  of  Khotan.  New  York: 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  1903. 

Wood,  J.  N.  P.— Travel  and  Sport  in  Turkistan.  New  York: 
Daniel  Appleton  &  Co.,  1910. 

Indo-China   (Annam,  Tonquin,  etc.) 

Aymonier,  E. — Le  Cambodge.     Paris,  1900-04. 

Barral,  J. — La  Colonisation  fran(;aise  au  Tonkin  et  en  Annam. 

Paris,  1899. 
Barthelemy,  Comte  de.— En  Indo-Chine.    Paris,  1899. 
Bernard,  F. — Indo-Chine.     Paris,  1901. 
Billet,  A.— Deux  Ans  dans  le  Haut  Tonkin.    Paris,  1898. 
BoELL.  P.— L'Inde  ct  le  Probleme  Indien.     Paris,  1901. 
Bonhoure,  E. — L'lndo-Chine.     Paris,  1900. 
♦Broomhall,  M. — Islam  in  China.    London,  1910. 
♦Chailley-Bert,    J.— La    Colonisation    de    I'lndo-Chine.     Paris, 

1892. 
Clifford,   H.— Further   India.     New   York:     F.   A.   Stokes   Co., 

1904. 
Cunningham,   A. — The    French   in   Tonkin   and    South   China. 

London,  1902. 
Dupuis,  J. — Le  Tong-kin  et  Tlntervention  frangaise.     Paris,  1897. 


240  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

Gallois.  E.— a  Travers  les  Indes.     Paris,  1899. 

GossELiN,  Capt. — Le  Laos  et  le  Protectorat  frangais.    Paris,  1900. 

GossELiN,  Capt. — L'Empire  d'Annam.  ^  Paris,  1904. 

♦Heudebert,  L. — L'Indo-Chine  Frangaise.     Paris,  1910. 

Ireland,  A. — The  Far  Eastern  Tropics.    London,  1905. 

JoTTRAND.  M.  AND  Mme. — Indo-Chine  et  Japan.     Paris,  1908.^ 

Lagrilliere-Beauclerc,  E. — A  Travers  I'lndo-Chine,  Cochin- 
chine,  Cambodge,  Annam,  Tonkin,  Laos.     Paris,  1900. 

Lajonquiere,  E.  L.  de. — Inventaire  descriptif  des  monuments  du 
Cambodge.  Publications  dc  L'Ecole  Frangaise  d'Extreme- 
Orient.     Paris,  1907. 

Madrolle,  C — Indo-Chine,  Indes,  Siam  (Guide  Books).  Paris, 
1902. 

Malleson,  G.  B. — History  of  the  French  in  India.    London,  1893. 

Neton,  a. — LTndo-Chine  et  son  Avenir  Economique.  Paris, 
1903. 

Nicolas,  P. — La  Vie  frangaise  en  Cochinchine.    Paris,  1900. 

Norman,  C  B. — Peoples  and  Politics  of  the  Far  East.    London, 

1895. 
Norman,  C.  B. — Tonkin.    London,  1884. 
Patt6,  p. — Hinterland  Moi.     Paris,  1906. 
Pavie,   a. — Mission   Pavie   Indo-Chine,   1879-95.    Geographie  et 

Voyages.     Paris,  1899- 1906. 
PiCANON,  E. — Le  Laos  Frangais.     Paris,  1900. 
Reinach,  L.  de. — Le  Laos.    Paris,  1901. 
♦Vassal,  G.  M. — On  and  Off  Duty  in  Annam.    London :   William 

Heinemann,  1910. 
Verschuur,  G. — Aux  Colonies  d'Asie  et  dans  I'Ocean   Indien. 

Paris,  1900. 

Farther  India  and  East  Indies 

*Cator,  D, — Everyday  Life  Among  the  Head-Hunters.    London, 

1905. 
♦Chalmers,  J. — Pioneering  in  New  Guinea.    London,  1895. 
CooLSMA,  S. — De  Zendingseeuw  voor  Nederlandsch  Oost-Indie. 

Utrecht,  1901. 
*Furness,   W.   H. — The   Home-Life  of  Borneo   Head-Hunters. 

Philadelphia:   J.  B.  Lippincott  Co.,  1902. 
Geographical  Journal,  XVI  (1900). 
Hose,  C. — In  the  Heart  of  Borneo.    Geographical  Journal,  XVI 

(1909). 
Macgregor,  Sir  W. — British  New  Guinea.    London,  1897. 
*Mackay,  K. — Across  Papua.     New  York:    Charles  Scribner's 

Sons,  1909. 
McFarlane,  S. — Among  the  Cannibals  of  New  Guinea.    London, 

1888. 
RiCHiNGS,  E.— Through  the  Malay  Archipelago.    London :  Henry 

J.  Drane,  1909. 


APPENDIX   A  241 

♦Stmon".  G.  K. — Tslnm  und  Christentum.     Berlin,  1910. 
♦Walker.  H.  W. — Wanderings  Among  South  Sea  Savages.    New 

York:    Charles  Scribner's  Sons.  190Q. 
♦Warneck,  J.— The  Living  Christ  and  Dying  Heathenism.    New 

York:  Fleming  H.  Revell  &  Co.,  1909. 

Nepal  and  Bhutan 

BALLEJmNE,  H.— On  India's  Frontier.     London,  1896. 

Bendall.  C— a  Journey  in  Nepal.     Cambridge,  18^. 

DiGBV,  W. — Nepal  and  India.     London,  1890. 

♦GiL^HAM.   J.    A.— On   the   Threshold   of   Three   Closed   Lands. 

Edinburgh :    Clark,  1899. 
Sandberg,  G.— Bhutan,  the  Unknown  State.     Calcutta,  1898. 
Waddell,  L.  A.— .Among  the  Himalayas.     London.  1898. 
♦White,  J.  C— Sikkim  and  Bhutan.    London :    Arnold,  1909. 

Mongolia  and  Manchuria 

Barzini,  L.— Pekin  to  Paris.     New  York:    Mitchell  Kennerley 
1908. 

♦CuRTiN,  J. — Mongols  in  Russia.     Boston:    Little,  Brown  & 
Co.,  1908. 

♦CuRTiN,  J. — The  Mongols:  A  History.   Boston:  Little,  Brown 
&  Co.,  1907. 

♦Gilmour.    Rev.    J. — Adventures    in    Mongolia.     New    York: 
Fleming  H.  Revell  &  Co.,  1886. 

♦GiLMOUR,  Rev.  J. — Among  the  Mongols.    New  York:    Fleming 
H.  Revell  &  Co.,  1888. 

♦GiLMOUR,  Rev.  J.— More  About  the  Mongols.    New  York :  Flem- 
ing H.  Revell  &  Co.,  1893. 

Hedley,  J. — Tramps   in   Dark  Mongolia.     New  York:    Charles 
Scribner's  Sons,   1909. 

Hosie,  a. — Manchuria :    Its  People,  Resources  and  Recent  His- 
tory.    New  York :    Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  1904. 

Howorth,  H.  H.— History  of  the  Mongols,  Ninth  to  Nineteenth 
Centuries.     New  York:    Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  1902. 

Roberts,  J.  H. — Flight  for  Life  and  an  Inside  View  of  Mongolia. 
Boston :    Pilgrim  Press,  1902. 

♦Younghusband.  F  E.— The  Heart  of  a  Continent.     New  York: 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  1904. 

Siberia 

Bookwalter,  J.  W. — Siberia  and  Central  Asia.    New  York:  F.  A. 

Stokes  Co. 
♦CuRTiN,  J. — A  Journey  in   Southern   Siberia.     Boston:    Little, 

Brown  &  Co.,  1909. 
Deutsche,   L. — Sixteen   Years   in    Siberia.     New   York:     E.    P. 

Dutton  &  Co.,  1905. 
GoLDSCHMiDT,  A.— Aus  dcf  Dckabristenzeit     New  York:    G.  E. 

Steckert  &  Co.,  1907. 


242  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

*Ho\VARD,  B.  D.— Life  with  Trans-Siberian  Savages.    New  York: 

Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  1893. 
*Kennan,  G.— Siberia  and  the  Exile  System.     New  York:    The 

Century  Co.,  1900. 
Kennan,  G. — Tent  Life  in  Siberia.     New  York :   G.  P.  Putnam's 

Sons,  1910. 
Krausse,  a.— Russia  in  Asia.     New  York:    Henry  Holt  &  Co., 

1899. 
Life  and  Voyages  of  Joseph  Wiggins,  Modern  Discoverer  of  the 

Kara  Sea  Route  to  Siberia.     New  York :   E.  P.  Button  &  Co., 

1907. 
Norman,  H.— All  the  Russias.     New  York:    Charles  Scribner's 

Sons,  1902. 
Stadling,  J.— Through  Siberia.     New  York :  E.  P.  Button  &  Co., 

1901. 
Turner,  S.— Siberia,  a  Record  of  Travel.     Philadelphia:    G.  W. 

Jacobs  &  Co.,  1906. 
*Wright,  G.  p.— Asiatic  Russia.     New  York:    Boubleday,  Page 

&  Co.,  1902. 

Tibet 

Bacot,  J. — Bans  les  Marches  Tibetaines.     Paris,  1909. 

*BiSH0P,  Mrs.  L  B.— Among  the  Tibetans.  New  York:  Fleming 
H.  Revell  &  Co.,  1894. 

Candler,  E. — The  Unveiling  of  Lhasa.  New  York:  Longmans, 
Green  &  Co.,  1905. 

Carey,  W. — Adventures  in  Tibet.  New  York:  Baker  &  Taylor 
Co.,  1901. 

Cordier,  H.— L'Expulsion  de  MM.  Hue  et  Gabet  du  Tibet  (1846). 
Paris.  1910. 

Crosby,  O.  T.— Tibet  and  Turkistan.  New  York:  G.  P.  Put- 
nam's Sons,  1905. 

Beasy,  H.  p. — In  Tibet  and  Chinese  Turkistan.  New  York: 
Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  1901. 

Buncan,  J.  E. — A  Summer  Ride  Through  Western  Tibet.  Ber- 
lin, 1906. 

FiLCHNER,  W. — Bas  Kloster  Kumbum  in  Tibet.     Berlin,  1906. 

Freshfield,  B.  W. — Round  Kangchenjunga.  New  York:  Long- 
mans. Green  &  Co. ,,1904. 

Gerard,  F. — Tibet:  The  Country  and  Its  Inhabitants.  London, 
1904. 

*Hedin  Sven. — Central  Asia  and  Tibet.  New  York:  Charles 
Scribner's  Sons,  1903. 

*Hedtn,  Sven. — Burch  Asicns  Wiisten.  Brei  Jahre  auf  Neuen 
Wegen  in  Pamir,  Lop-nor,  Tibet,  und  China.     Leipzig,  1910. 

*Hedin,  Sven. — Le  Tibet  Bevoile.  Ouvrage  traduit  et  asapte 
par  Ch.  Rabot.     Paris,  1910. 

*Hedin,  Sven. — Through  Asia.  New  York:  Charles  Scribner's 
Sons,  1899. 


APPENDIX    A  243 

•Hedijj,   S\'Ey.— Trans-Himalaya,     New  York:    The   Macmillan 

Co..    lOOQ. 

HoLDicH.  Sir  T.— Tibet  the  Mysterious.    New  York:  F.  A.  Stokes 

Co.,  1906. 
Jenkins.    Ladv— Sport    and    Travel    in    Both   Tibcts.     London: 

Blades.  East  and  Blades.   1900. 
♦Landon.  p.— The  Opening  of  Tibet.     New  York:    Doubleday, 

Page  &  Co.,  1905. 
♦Landor,  a.  H    S.— Explorer's  Adventures  in  Tibet.     New  York: 

Harper  &  Brotliers.  1910. 
*Landor,  A.  H.  S.— In  the  Forbidden  Land.    New  York:    Harper 

&  Brothers.  1S99 
♦Lesdain,  Count  de. — From  Peking  to  Sikkim.     New  York:  E. 

P.  Button  &  Co..  1908. 
Macdonald,  a —Through  the  Heart  of  Tibet.    New  York:  H.  M. 

Caldwell   Co.,   1909. 
♦Marston,  a.  W.— The  Great  Closed  Land.     New  York:    Flem- 
ing H.  Revell  &  Co..  1894- 
MiLLiNGTON.  P. — To  Lhasa  at  Last.    London,  1905. 
MiLLOUE,  L.  DE. — Bod-Youl  ou  Tibet   (le  Paradis  des  Moines). 

Paris,  1906. 
Rawling,   C.    G.— The   Great    Plateau.    New   York:    Longmans, 

Green  &  Co..  1905. 
♦RijNHART,  S.  C— With  the  Tibetans  in  Tent  and  Temple.     New 

York:    Fleming  H.  Revell  &  Co..  1901. 
RocKHiLL,  W    \V.— The  Land  of  the  Lamas.     New  York:    The 

Century  Co.  1891. 
Sandberg,  G. — The  Exploration  of  Tibet.    London,  1904. 
Schneider,  H.   G. — Working  and  Waiting  for  Tibet.     London: 

Morgan  &  Scott.  1895 
Sherring.  G.— Western  Tibet  and  the  British  Borderland.     New 

York:    Longmans.  Green  &  Co..  1906. 
Waddell.  L.   a. — Lhasa  and  Its  Mysteries.     New  York:    E.   P. 

Button  &  Co.,  1905. 
Wellby,   M.   S.— Through  Unknown  Tibet.     New  York:    J.   B. 

Lippincott  Co.,  1898. 

GENERAL 

Barton,    J.    L.,    and    Others. — The    Mohammedan    World    of 

To-day.    New  York :    Fleming  H.  Revell  &  Co.,  1906. 
Beach,    H.    P. — Geography    and    Atlas    of    Protestant    Missions. 

New  York:    Student  Volunteer  Movement,  1901. 
Blaikie,  W.  G. — The  Pergonal  Life  of  David  Livingstone.     New 

York :    Fleming  H.  Revell  &  Co.,  1880. 
Brent,    C.    E. — Adventure    for    God.      New    York :     Longmans, 

Green  &  Co.,  1907. 
Brent.  C.  E. — Leadership.     New  York :    Longmans,  Green  &  Co., 

1908. 
*BR0f)MHALL,    M.— The   Chinese   Empire.     London:     Morgan  & 

Scott.  1907. 


244  THE  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS 

Brown*,  A.  J. — The  Foreign  Missionary.  New  York:  Fleming 
H.  Revell  &  Co.,  1907. 

CuRZON,  G.  N. — Problems  of  the  Far  East.  New  York:  Long- 
mans, Green  &  Co.,  1896. 

Dennis,  J.  S. — Christian  Missions  and  Social  Progress.  New 
York :    Fleming  H.  Revell  &  Co.,  1902. 

DwiGHT,  H.  O.,  AND  Others. — Encyclopedia  of  Missions.  New 
York:     Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co.,  1904. 

Evangelization  of  the  World,  The.  London:  Cambridge  Band, 
1887. 

Forsyth,  P.  T. — Missions  in  State  and  Church.  New  York:  A. 
C.  Armstrong  &  Son,  1908. 

Harrison,  Mrs  J.  W. — Mackay  of  Uganda,  New  York:  A.  C. 
Armstrong  &  Son,  1895. 

Henderson,  C.  R. — Introduction  to  the  Study  of  the  Dependent, 
Defective  and  Delinquent  Classes.  Boston:  D.  C.  Heath  & 
Co.,  1909. 

Mill,  H.  R. — The  International  Geography.  New  York:  Daniel 
Appleton  &  Co.,  1900. 

^Missionary  Review  of  the  World,  The.  New  York:  Funk  & 
Wagnalls  Co. 

MoTT,  J.  R. — The  Decisive  Hour  of  Christian  Missions.  New 
York:   Student  Volunteer  Movement,   1910. 

MoTT,  J.  R. — The  Evangelization  of  the  World  in  This  Genera- 
tion.    New  York:    Student   Volunteer   Movement,   1900. 

PopowsKi,  J. — The  Rival  Powers  in  Central  Asia,  or  the  Strug- 
gle Between  England  and  Russia  in  the  East.    London,  1893. 

♦Report  of  the  World  Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgh,  1910, 
Vols.  I,  IV,  VI,  VIII.  New  York:  Fleming  H.  Revell  & 
Co.,  1910. 

*Revue  du  Monde  Mussulman.     Paris :  Leroux,  Vols.  I-VIII. 

RiCHTER,  J. — A  History  of  Protestant  Missions  in  the  Near  East. 
New  York :    Fleming  H.  Revell  &  Co.,  1910. 

Speer,  R.  E. — Missionary  Principles  and  Practice.  New  York: 
Fleming  H.  Revell  &  Co.,  1902. 

Speer,  R.  E. — Missions  and  Modern  History.  New  York :  Flem- 
ing H.  Revell  &  Co..  1904. 

Speer,  R.  E. — The  Non-Christian  Religions  Inadequate  to  Meet 
the  Needs  of  Men.  New  York:  Student  Volunteer  Move- 
ment, 1906. 

Statesman's  Year-Book.  New  York:     The  Macmillan  Co.,  1910. 

*World  Atlas  of  Christian  Missions.  New  York:  Student 
Volunteer  Movement,  191 1. 

Zwemer,  S.  M.-— Islam :  a  Challenge  to  Faith.  New  York :  Stu- 
dent Volunteer  Movement,  1907. 

Zwemer,  S.  M.— Raymund  Lull.  New  York :  Funk  &  Wagnalls 
Co.,  1902. 

Zwemer,  S.  M.— The  Message  and  the  Man.     New  York:     Stu- 
dent Volunteer  Movement,  1910. 
Zwemer,   S.   M.— The  Moslem   Doctrine  of  God.     New   York: 
American  Tract  Society,  1905. 


APPENDIX   B 

STATISTICS  OF  MOHAMMEDAN  POPULATION 
IN  RUSSIA 

Provinces  of  Buddhists  Percent. 

European  Total  Moham-     (Lama-  Moham- 

Russia.  Population.        medans.        ites).      Heathen.       medans. 


ArkhangeNk  237,000 

Astrakhan    i  ,004,000 

Bessarabia   1.935,000 

VUna  1,591,000 

Vitebsk   1.498,000 

Vladimir  1,516,000 

Vologda  1,343,000 

Volhynia   2,989,000 

Voroneih  2,581,000 

Vyatka   3,031,000 

Grodno  1,603,000 

Don  2,564,000 

Yekaterinoslav  2,114,000 

Kaian  2,171,000 

Kaluga  1,133,000 

Kiev    3,559,000 

Kovno    1,545,000 

Kostroma  1,387,000 

Kursk   2,371,000 

Courland   674,000 

Licrland  1,299,000 

Minsk   2,148,000 

Moghiler   1,687,000 

Moscow    2,431,000 

Nizhnii-Novgorod   ...   1,585,000 

Novgorod   1,367,000 

Olonets  364,000 

Orenburg  1,600,000 

Orloffsk  2,034,000 

Penza   1,470,000 

Perm  2,994,000 

Podolia  3^x8,000 


55 

300,000 

600 

4.300 

600 

410 

176 

4,880 

310 

132,000 

3.750 

3.500 

2,090 

633,000 

170 

3.000 

1,900 

800 

480 

600 

536 

4.600 

184 

5.500 

41,000 

500 

70 

360,000 

426 

59.000 

150,000 

3.450 

245 


135,000 


5.500 


13,500 


Less  than 

1% 

30% 

Less  than 

1% 

.. 

1% 

" 

1% 

.< 

1% 

.. 

1% 

.. 

1% 

4. 

1% 

5% 

Less  than 

1% 

«               4< 

1% 

«                «« 

1% 

25% 

Less  than 

1% 

« 

1% 

„ 

1% 

<i       f 

1% 

„ 

1% 

„       .. 

1% 

.. 

1% 

., 

1% 

'• 

1% 

" 

1% 

2Vi% 

Less  than 

1% 

.. 

1% 

22% 

Less  than 

1% 

4% 

5% 

Less  than 

1% 

THE   UNOCCUPIED  MISSION   FIELDS 

Provinces  of                                                    Buddhists  Per  cent. 

European                  Total           Moham-      (Lama-  Moham- 

Russia.              Population,      medans.        ites).     Heathen.  medans. 


Poltava 2,778,000 

Pskov  1,122,000 

Ryazan  1,803,000 

Samara  2,761,000 

St.   Petersburg 2,112,000 

Saratov    2,406,000 

Simbrisk  1,528,000 

Smolensk   1,525,000 

Taurida    1,448,000 

Tambov   2,684,000 

Tver    1,769,000 

Tula    1,419,000 

Ufa    2,197,000 

Kharkov     3,492,000 

Kherson     ., 2,734,000 

Chernigov    2,298,000 

Esthonia    413,000 

Yaroslavl    1,071,000 

Poland: 

Warsaw     1,932,000 

Kalisz    841,000 

Kielce    762,000 

Lomza     580,000 

Lublin     1,161,000 

Piotrkow    1,404,000 

Plock    5S4,ooo 

Radom    815,000 

Suwalki   583,000 

Siedlce    772,000 

Caucasus : 

Baku     827,000 

Daghestan     650,000 

Elizabethpol     878,000 

Kars     291,000 

Koubausk    1,919,000 

Kutais    1,058,000 

Havrapolsk    873,000 

Tersk    934,000 

Tiflis     1,051,000 

Tscheruomorsk     57,000 

Erivan     830,000 


640 

37 

5,000 

190,000 

6,000 

100,000 

130,000 

300 

191,000 

17,000 

500 

178 

1,000,000 

1,360 

2,300 

530 

75 

»7S 


750 


.... 

"       "      1% 

.... 

"       "      1% 

.... 

"       "      1% 

5,000 

7i¥^ 

.... 

Less  than  1% 

.... 

4% 

350 

sy,% 

Less  than  1% 

14% 

Less  than  1% 

"       "      1% 

.... 

"       "      1% 

100,000 

50% 



Less  than  1% 

.... 

"       "      1% 

.... 

"       "      1% 

"       "      1% 

.... 

"       "      1% 

hSSf> 

.... 



Less  than  1% 

214 

.... 

.... 

"       "     1% 

96 

.... 

.... 

"       "     1% 

480 

.... 

.... 

"       "     1% 

46a 

.... 

.... 

"       "     1% 

311 

117 

105 

"       "    11% 

266 

.... 

"      ••     1% 

65 

.... 

.... 

"       "     1% 

786 

.... 

.... 

"       "     1% 

669 

83% 

675,000 

.... 

.... 

53% 

340,000 

.... 

.... 

62% 

551,000 

.... 



50% 

146,000 



3.300 

5H% 

103,000 

250 



121/2% 

117,000 

.... 



40A* 

38,000 

10,300 



53% 

485,000 

4.100 

.... 

20% 

189,000 



300 

5A< 

3,100 



.... 

41^% 

350,000 



i3,Soo 

APPENDIX   B 


47 


Provinces  of 
European  Total 

Russia.  Population. 

Siberia : 

Amur    68j,ooo 

Yeniseisk     570.000 

Transbaikalia    67.;,ooo 

Irkutsk    SU.ooo 

Pnmorskaya   and 

Sakhalin    243,000 

Tabolsk     i.433.ooo 

Tomsk  i,9a3,ooo 

Yakutsk    970,000 

Middle  Aaia: 

Akmolinsk     440,000 

Sakaspisk    382,000 

Samarkand   860,000 

Semiryechensk    988,000 

Semipalatinsk    2,806,000 

Syr-Daria     i,4;8,ooo 

Turgai     453,000 

Uralsk     645,000 

Ferghana    1,573,000 

Finland   3,587,000 

ToUli     


Moham- 
medans. 

(Lama- 
ites). 

Heathen 

Moham- 
medans. 

Less  than  1% 

665 

5,000 

8,500 

j8 

3.700 
1,950 

1% 
Less  than  1% 

3.«» 
7,600 

174.000 
11,600 

4.4C0 
53,000 

iU% 

12% 

3.000 
64,900 
40,000 

1,900 

53.-«» 
J 
43 

i 

4.. MO 

15.850 

936 

1% 

100% 

439.000 

340,000 
840,000 

50 

100 

63>/.% 

97% 

8So,ooo 

615,000 

I  ,.;oo,ooo 

.... 

.... 

95% 
86% 

390,000 

478,000 

1,550,000 

960 
126 

100 
80 

77% 
99% 

20 

13.323.082   431.030   269,731 


Estimated    Estimated 
Russian   Depend-     Total  Pop-      Moslem 
encies  in  Asia:  ulation.     Population. 

Khiva     800,000  600,000 

Bokhara     1.250,000        1,000,000 


Total  Non-Christian  Population 
of  Russian  Provinces,  14.023,843 


APPENDIX  C 


TABLE  I.  JAPAN* 


Districts  which  have  over 
(j)  or  no 


200,000  population  to  om  Missionary 
resident  Missionary. 


District 


Population 


Iwate    748,753 

Yamagata     879,564 

Fukushima    1,175,224 

Niigata     1,780,123 

Toyama    776,851 

Shiga     716,920 

Miye    1,044,3^3 

Tochigi    912.274 

Ibaragi     1,200,475 

Chiba    1,316,547 

Saitama    1,440,280 

Wakayama  697,766 

Okayama     1,188,244 

Kagawa     711,603 

Saga    654,593 

Oita   854,982 

Okiuawa    476,230 


Pop.  to  each 

Missionary 

(Excluding  wives) 

249,584  I 

439.782  I 

587,61a  1 

356,024  a 

776,851  I 


261,080  a 

456,137  I 

400,158  I 

219,424  3 


1,240,280 
232,588 
237,648 
355.801 

284,994 
476,230 


Number  and  names  of 
stations  in  District 

Morioka 

Yamagata 

Wagamatsu 

Nagaoka,  Niigata 

Toyama 

No  missionary 

Tsu,  Yamada 

Utsumoimya 

Mito 

Chiba,  Choshi, 

Sakura 
Kawaje 
Wakayama 
Okayama 
Takamatsu 
Saga 

Kurume,   Oita 
Naha 


TABLE  IL    BENGAL* 

Districts  which  have  over  200,000  population  to  one  Missionary 

(i)  or  no  resident  Missionary. 

Pop.  to  each       -sj       k  d  f 

District  Population  Missionary        ^  "      V     ^.    t^.*™.^ 

,~     ,    J.  ,      stations  in  District 

(Excluding  wives) 

Burdwan   1.532,475  218,925  5  Asansol,    Bur  d  w  a  n, 

Kalna,     M  a  n  k  u  r, 
Raniganj 

Birbhura     902,280  902,280  i  Suri 

Midnaporc     2,789,114  3i4t547  7  Bhimpur,    Chandrako- 

na,    Contai,    Kharg- 
pur,     Midnapore, 
Santipur,  Tamluk 
^Condensed  from  Appendix  in  Vol.  I,  Report  of  World  Missionary  C;on- 

fcrence,  Edinburgh,   1910. 

248 


APPENDIX    C 


249 


District 


Population 


Pop.  to  each 

Missionary 

(Excluding  wives) 


Murshidabad     1.3J3.1S4 

Jessore    1.813,155 

Khulna     i.a53.043 

Rajshahi    1^62,407 

Dinajpur   1,567,080 

Jalpaiguri    787,380 

Rangpur    3,154,181 

Bogra    854,533 

Pabna     1,420,461 

Dacca    2,649,522 

Mymcnsingh   3,915,068 


Faridpur   1,937.646 

Tippcra  a,ii7,99i 

Noakhali     1,141,728 

Chittagorg     i,3S3»i5o 

Gaya    2,059.933 

Shahabad    1,962,696 

Saran    2,409,509 

Champaran     1,790^463 

Muzaftarpur    3,754.790 

Darbhanga   2,912,611 

Monghyr  2,068,804 

Purnca    1,874,794 

Malda   SS^fiSO 

Sonthal    Parganas — 1,809,737 


Cuttack    2,062,758 

Angul  &  Khondmals     191,911 

Puri    1,017,284 

Palamau 619,600 

Coocb  Bchu 566^74 

Hill  Tippcra  173.325 


666.592 

604.38s 
.253.043 
292,481 


,077,090 

284,092 
203.809 

244.691 


322.941 
352.998 

570,864 
1,353.250 

411.986 
1,962,696 

301,188 

596,821 
2,754,790 
970,870 
344,800 
937.397 


47,624 


229,19s 
1,017,284 


1.567,080  I 

393.690  2 


Number  and  names  •! 
stations  in  District 

Jiaganj 

Jessore 

Khulna 

Naogaon,  R  a  m  p  u  r, 
Boalia 

Dinajpur 

Baksa-Duar,  Jalpai- 
guri 

Rangpur 

Bogra 

Pabna,   Scrajganj 

Dacca,  Jobarpar,  Na- 
rainganj 

Biri  Siri  Jamalpur, 
Mymensingh,  Tan- 
gail 

Brahmanbaria,  Chand- 
pur,  Comilla 

Faridpur,  Raj  ban 

Sudharam 

Chittagong 

Gaya,   Tikari 

Burar 

Gapra,  Gopalganj,  Si- 
wan 

Chanpatia,  Motihari 

Muzaffarpur 

Darbhanga 

Chakai,    Monghyr 

Purnca 

No  missionary 

Bahawa,  De  o  g  a  r  h 
(Baidyanath),  Ebe- 
nczcr,  Godda,  Jan- 
tara.  Kadhar,  Kari, 
Kador,  Kharmatar, 
Madhupur,  Maijam, 
Mohulpahari,  P  e- 
kaur,  Sagjuria,  Tal- 
jhara 

Cuttack 

No  missionary 

Puri 

No  missionary 

No  missionary 

Rajgangpur  (Kunu^ 
kela) 


INDEX 


351 


INDEX 


Abdul  Karira,  story  of,  218. 

Abijcan,  40. 

Abyssinia,    28,   71,   83,   221. 

Adamawa,  26. 

Adams,  Joseph  S.,   quoted,   122. 

Adana,    146. 

Adaptability  of  missionary,  190. 

Addis  Adeba,  28,  29,  83. 

Aden,  23,  24,   28,  205. 

Adrar,   27. 

Adua,  28. 

Afghanistan,  4,  6,  11,  12,  13,  66,  70, 
79,  80.  103,  III,  113.  127,  146,  147, 
153.  163,  164,  195,  207.  208,  218,  221; 
Amir  of.  quoted,  88;  martyr  of, 
317',  political  hindrance  to  mission- 
ary occupation  in,  81;   women  of, 

117. 

Afghans.  7;  character  of,  8;  subjec- 
tion of,  58. 

Af!aj,  6s. 

AIricA»  2,  4.  38,  62,  71,  99.  103,  109, 
113,  las,  126.  133,  13s,  145.  155.  160. 
171.  ^73',  cast,  175;  fanaticism  in, 
89;  French  in,  75;  mission  stations 
in,  42;  Moslems  in,  6a;  north,  41; 
obstacles  to  entrance  of  missiona- 
ries. 75;  railway  in,  37,  40;  unoccu- 
pied areas   of,   25,   209;   west,  38. 

Ahkaf,   64. 

Aksu,    14,    164,  208. 

Algeria,  41,  74. 

Allah,    7;    desert,   garden   of,    70. 

Ambition,  to  enter  unoccupied 
fields,  225. 

Amir  of  Afghanistan,  80.  147,  164, 
178;  speech  of,  88;  cruelty  of,  94, 
in;    superstition  of,    103. 

Amulets,    104,    175. 

Anderson,    H.,    quoted,   49. 

Anglo-Saxons,    as    explorers,    215. 

Angola,  39. 

Animism,    23,    126,    133,    134. 

Animists,    99,    104. 

Annam,  23,    ii6.    126. 

Arabia,  7,  23,  63,  70,  79,  82,  84,  100, 
102,  125,  127,  133,  159.  168,  169,  186, 
221,  225;  Bedouins  im,  25,  64;  larg- 
est unexplored  area  in,  63. 

Arabian   Mission,   history  of,   204. 

Arabic  language,  169,   170. 


Arabs.  160,  170,  175;  character  of, 
8;  of  Oman,  224. 

Areas  undiscovered,  62;  unexplored 
in  Arabia,  6^;  unoccupied,  3;  un- 
reached in  China,  54. 

Argument  for  missions,  95. 

Arros,    148. 

Asia,  4,  36,  160,  161 ;  central,  2.  4,  6, 
10,  II,  63,  66,  68,  89,  113,  146,  147. 
158,  162,  209;  largest  unexplored 
territory  in,  62;  unoccupied  terri- 
tory, d;  western,  66. 

Askabaa.   12. 

Assam    Frontier   Mission,   206. 

Assam,    Southern,   47. 

Atheism,    Buddhist,    131. 

Atjeh,   34.   83.  ,     , 

Australia,  natives  of,  footnote,  156; 
Papua  compared  with,  69. 

B 

Badakhshan,  12,   66. 

Baedeker,  Dr.,  quoted,  18. 

Bagdad.  24- 

Baghelkhand.  48. 

Baghirmi,  5,  26. 

Ban,  34- 

Balkh,  12. 

Baluchis.   characteristics  of,  7.   i3- 

Baluchistan,  7.  69,  "6.  128,  147.  162. 
194;  area,  13;  climate  of,  70;  politi- 
cal administration,  13. 

Banka,  33. 

Bannu,  207- 

Baringa.  39.   ^    , 

Barny,  Rev.  F.  J.,  quoted,  79- 

Bassam,  40. 

Bateson,  J.   H.,  quoted,  68. 

Battaks,    136. 

Bedouins,  24,  J02,  106,  125;  in  Ara- 
bia, 25,  64. 

Beggar-scavengers,  112. 

Belts,  not  worn  by  Moslems,   161. 

Bengal,  eastern,  47,  49.  S3- 

Bent,  Theodore,  quoted,  24,  64. 

Bertolucci,  85. 

"Beyond  His  Care,"  poem,  58. 

Bhopal.  agency,  48. 

Bhutan,  22,  98,  133;  why  missiona- 
ries do  not  enter,  ;5. 

Bhutanese,  characteristics  of,  22. 

Bible,  distribution,  198;  in  Pushtu, 
195;  translation  of,  196. 


253 


254 


INDEX 


"Bigness  of  the  Task,"  226. 
Billiton,  33. 
"Bissau,  40. 
Blood-letting,    107. 
Boke,  40. 

Bokhara,   4,    12,    16,    17,   80,    107,    114, 
162,  177,  208;  the  Cairo  of  Asia,  6. 
Bolobo,  39. 

Bompas,  Bishop,  quoted,  72. 
Booth,   William,   quoted,   214. 
Borneo,  34,  108;  central,  63. 
Bougainville,  35. 
Brahuis,   13,    117. 
Brent,    Bishop,   quoted,   229. 
Bribery,   128. 
Brigandage,  102. 
British   and   Foreign  Bible  Society, 


15.  37,  52,  77. 
ntish  Ea 


British  East  Africa,  5. 

British    Government,    in   Africa,    26, 

76;  influence  in  Central  Asia,   17; 

in    Tibet,    31;    prohibits    missions, 

41,    76. 
Brooke,   Graham   VV.,  209. 
Brooks,     Bishop     Phillips,     quoted, 

229. 
Broomhall,  M.,  quoted,  114, 
Buddha,   132,    143. 
Buddhism,   10,  23,   104,    126,   131,   140; 

atheism   of,    131;   in   Nepal,   21;   in 

Tibet,  129. 
Buka,  35. 
Bundelkhand,  48. 
Burckhardt,   126. 
Buriats,    18,    138,    148. 
Burma,   53,  206,  227. 
Burton,  64,  85;  quoted,  11$- 
Busrah,  24. 


Calculating  spirit,  226. 

Cambodia,  23. 

Campbell,  J.  F.,  quovTd,  48,  49. 

Cannibalism,  94,  108,  ^34;  in  Africa, 
footnote,    109. 

Cantine,  Dr.  James,  f^uoted,  204,  205. 

Capacity   of   races  for   religion,    124. 

Carey,   William,  2,   80,  217. 

Carlyle,    Thomas,    quoted,    94. 

Carpenter,  William  Boyd,  quoted, 
155. 

Carruthers,   Douglas,   82,   125. 

Caspian  Sea,  10. 

Caste,  Islam  knows  no,  176. 

Cautery,    106. 

Central  Asia,  2,  4,  6,  10,  11,  63,  66, 
68,  8g,  113,  146,  158,  162,  209;  cities 
of,  17,  164,  208;  political  situation 
in,  80;  races  of,  6;  Russia  in,  16- 
18;  Russian  policy  in,  80;  unoccu- 
pied territory  in,  4. 

Central  Asian  Mission,  207. 

Central  Borneo,  63. 

Central  India,  48. 

Central  provinces,  47. 


Challenge,  of  Christianity,  1 ;  of  the 
unoccupied   fields,   219. 

Chalmers,   James,  quoted,  35,   185. 

Chaman,  13,  17. 

Changbhakar,  75. 

Chantos,   113. 

Character  of  missionary  needed,  184- 
185. 

Charjui,   18. 

Charms,   104,   175. 

Che-kiang,   52. 

Chiba,  46. 

Children  of  Kashgar,   113,   114. 

China,  2,  10,  19,  49-55,  96,  127,  153, 
161,  171;  areas  unreached  in,  54; 
inland  mission,  50,  206;  missiona- 
ries in,  footnote,  51;  population, 
49;  unfinished  task  in,  50. 

Chinese  Turkistan,  4,  11,  14,  19,  103, 
164,  166;  climate  of,  14;  Khirgese 
of,  7;  without  missionaries,  208. 

Cholera,  in  Afghanistan,  loi. 

Chota   Nagpur,    47. 

Christian  and  Missionary  Alliance, 
206. 

Christian  medals,   158. 

Christianity,  162;  challenge  of,  i; 
first  days  of,  226. 

Church  Missionary  Society,  13,  162, 
206,  207,  209,   210,  211,  224. 

Church  of  Scotland  Mission.  206.  ^ 

Cities,  of  Arabia,  25;  of  China,  mis- 
sionary occupation  of,  51;  of  Cen- 
tral Asia,   17,   164,  208. 

Civilization,  with  evangelization, 
120;  without  gospel,    125. 

Qark,  Edson  L.,  quoted,  i7o. 

Clark,   Rev.   Robert,   quoted,   162. 

Climate,  hardships  of,  64,  67;  in 
Baluchistan,  70,  71. 

Cochin-China,  23. 

Colleges,    in    Central    Asia,    208. 

Colonial  governments,   175. 

Comity,  mission,  44,  45. 

Command  of  Christ,  155. 

Commerce  in  Central  Asia,  17. 

Commercialism,  39. 

Common  sense  needed  by  mission- 
ary, 199,  201. 

Concentration  of  mission  stations, 
45,    184. 

Conception  of  God,  137. 

Congo,  5,  39;   French,  40. 

Creation,   legend   of,   125. 

Cromer,  Lord,  quoted,  77;  attitude 
of,  toward  missions,  to  Moslems, 
211. 

Cruelty,  no;  in  Africa,  footnote, 
100;  perpetrated  on  the  dead,  112; 
to  criminals,  in;  to  relieve  dis- 
ease,   106. 

Curtin,   Jeremiah,    138. 

Curzon,  Lord,  quoted,   83. 

Central  Sudan,  26. 

Ceram,  35. 

Chad,   Lake,  25,  27. 


INDEX 


255 


Dahomey.  5. 

Dalai  Lama.  21,  87,  143. 

Dnrjeeling.  8^. 

Davidson.  W  ..  quoted,  77-78. 

Dayaks.   loS,   ^vS. 

Death  rate,  reduced.  74. 

Deck.  Dr.   Northcote.  quoted.  73. 

Degradation.    96.    131;    of    tribes    in 

Borneo,  loJS;  of  womanhood,  113. 
Dennis.    Dr.    J,    Si,    quoted,   95,   97. 

102,   115. 
Dentistry,    107. 
Dera-Ismail-Khan,  207. 
Dersim,  66. 

Desert    of   Gobi,    15.    ig,    70.    71.    154. 
Desert    the    garden    of    Allah,    foot- 
note. 70. 
Desire  for  universal  religion,    123. 
Destitution.    155.   228. 
Difficulties,  60,  217:  a  challenge,  90; 
disappearing.    73,    8S,    152:    in    Ma- 
laysia,   37  \    in    Somaliland,    77;    of 
chmate.  68,  ;i ;  of  communication. 
73;  physical,  60,  61. 
Diffusion    of    missionary    effort,    45, 

184. 
Dilly,  34. 
Discover}',  2. 
Disposal  of  the  dead,  112;  in  Papua, 

footnote,    !i2. 
Distribution    of    mission    forces,    in 

Japan,  footnote,  45;  in  India,  47. 
Distrust,  136. 
Divorce,    127. 
Dixev,  A.   D.,  quoted,  13. 
Doughty,   C.   M..  64,  65,  85,  86.    102, 

106,   126.    128;   quoted.   58. 
Douglas,   James,   quoted,    118. 
Dubreka.  40. 
Dutch  East  Indies,  196;  population, 

area,   footnote,  33. 
Dutch  New  Guinea,  exploration  in, 
footnote,  63. 

E 
East  Africa,   175. 
Eastern   Bengal,  47. 
Economic  progress,  99. 
Education,  167.  208. 
Egypt.    127,   159;  footnote,   76. 
Egyptians,  210. 
Emphasis  in  missions,  95. 
England     and     Russia     in     Central 

Asia,    166. 
Eritrea.  28. 

Eskimos,  characteristics  of.  72. 
Evangelization  of  the  world   in  this 
generation,    228;    with    civilization, 

IJO. 

Exploration,  2;  Anglo-Saxons  in, 
215;  in  Africa,  71;  in  Arabia,  64; 
in  Tibet,  87. 

F 

Fairhairn,   Principal,  quoted,  122. 
Faith,  needed,  219,  226. 


Falconer.    Keith,    186;   222;   letter  of, 

31;   quoted.   94. 
Famine  in  Arabia,   loj. 
Fanah,   no. 
Fanaticism,  83,   103,   146.   147.    161;   in 

Africa.  76.  83,  89;  in  Sumatra,  83. 
Fatalism,    127. 
Feast   in   Afghanistan,   189. 
Fetiches,  105,   133,  137.  176;  footnote, 

104. 
Filth,  in  Central   Asia,   101. 
Flies,  in  Baluchistan,  69. 
Flores,  34. 

"Forelopers  of  God."  222. 
Forsyth.   Dr.,  quoted.  222. 
Eraser,   Donald,  quoted,   137. 
Fraud,    148. 
French  Congo,  40. 
French  government  in  Africa,  75;  in 

Indo-China,  23. 
French  Guinea.  5,  27,  40. 
French  Indo-China,  22. 
French,  Thomas    v.,  quoted,  224. 
Fu-kien,    52. 
Fukushima,  46. 
Fulton,  Dr.,  quoted,  53. 
Future  life,   137. 

G 

Gairdner,   W.   H.   T.,  quoted,   174. 

German  East  Africa,  5. 

German  Sudan  Pioneer  Mission,  211. 

Ghazni,  13. 

Gilgil.  71.  ^ 

Gilmour,   James,   19,  222. 

Gobi,   desert  of,   15,   19.  70.  71.    154- 

God,  conceptions  of,  137,  145;  de- 
lights in  impoKsibilities,  quotation, 
214;  the  Opener,  90,  91. 

Gomal   Pass,    12. 

Gondar,  28. 

Gordon  Memorial  College,  176. 

Gordon's  statue,  poem,  29. 

Gospel,  need  of  the  134;  only  hope, 
iig,  149. 

Government,  British,  76;  British  and 
Russian,  166;  in  Central  Asia,  78- 
81;  in  Tibet.  21;  lacking  in  unoc- 
cupied  fields,    108. 

Gowans,   Walter,  210. 

Greek  Church   and   its  missions,    18. 

Guinea,  French,  27,  40;  Portuguese, 
40. 

Gurkhas,  21. 

Gwalior,  48. 

H 

Hadjeb,  footnote,  42. 

Hadramaut.   24,  64,   159. 

Ilakkiari,  66. 

Halevy,  Joseph,  64. 

Harar,   28. 

Hardships,  67-68,    188;   in  Tibet,  ti6. 

Harris,  Hermann.  210. 

Ilasa,  79. 

Hausas,  160;  language  of,  26,  41. 


256 


INDEX 


Head-hunting,  109. 

Heart  of  two  continents,  3-4. 

Hedin,   Sven,  68-69;  quoted,  20,   loi, 

141,  158,  216. 
Hejaz,  24,  84;  railway,  86. 
Helmund  River,  66. 
Herat.   12,    17. 
Himalayas,  20,  67. 
Hinduism,  in  Malaysia,  35. 
Hodeida,  25,  224. 
Hogarth,  quoted,  62. 
Hogberg,    missionary,    quoted,    162, 

227. 
Hindrances,  external,  60. 
Holland,  Dr.  Henry,  quoted,  172. 
Holland,  W.  E.  S.,  quoted,  48. 
Home  ties,  221. 
Honan,  51. 

Horse  sacrifice,  138,  139,  149. 
Hoti-Mardan,  207. 
Huber,  64,  83. 

Humor,   sense  of,  needed,  189. 
Hunter,   George,   114. 
Huntington,    Ellsworth,    quoted,   79. 
Hun2a,  7. 
Husbandman  waiteth,  the,  poem,  31. 


Tbanshi,  39. 

Ignorance,  103,  131,  132;  of  lamas, 
142. 

Illiteracy,  96,   119. 

Immortality,  113,  146,  147;  in  Tibet, 
119;  of  priests,   141. 

Impossibilities,   conquered,   217,   230. 

Inadequacy  of  the  various  religions, 
136. 

India,  10,  47,  127,  171,  206;  central, 
48;  mission  forces  in,  47;  west- 
ern, 49. 

Indifference  of  church,  59. 

Indo-China,  French,  22. 

Industry,   127, 

Injustice,  128. 

Insanitation  in   Mongolia,  footnote, 

lOI. 

Insects,  in   Central  Asia,  68,  69. 
Inspiration,    from   difficulties,    226. 
Intolerance,  religious,  82;  in  Arabia, 

84. 
Inverted  homesickness,  222. 
Islam,  6,  10,   13,   18,  2z,  34.  ^2,   125. 

^27,  133.  145.  162,  164,  173,  17s,  176; 

British  Government  in   regard  to, 

76-77;    cruelty   of,    100;    in   Africa, 

41,  17X. 
Isolation,   of  Tibet,   20. 
Ivory   coast,  5,  27,  39. 


Japan,   45,   49;   missionaries   in,   46; 
Protestants  in,  45. 

iaspur,   75. 
edda,  84.   loi. 
udson,  Adoniram,  22'j, 


K 


Kaaba,  86;   covering,   104. 

Kabul,  12,  80,  101,  147,  164,  177;  Amir 
of,   80;  prisons  of,    iii. 

Kachi,  70. 

Kafiristan,  12,  66,  164. 

Kairwan,    42. 

Kamerun,  5. 

Kandahar,   12,   164. 

Kanem,  26. 

Kan-su,  4,  14,  53. 

Karakum,    12. 

Karim,  Abdul,  story  of,  218-219. 

Kasai    Basin,   footnote,   39. 

Kashgar,  4,  14,  15,  69,  loi,  114,  208. 

Kedah,  36,  37. 

Kei,  as  cure  for  disease,  106. 

Keith,   Thomas,   85. 

Kelantan,   36,   37. 

Kerbela,    T04,   115. 

Keriya,   113. 

Khaibar   Pass,  12,   163,   178. 

Khartoum,  21  r. 

Khatmandu,  22. 

Khirgese  of  Chinese  Turkistan,  7. 

Khirghiz  women,   114. 

Khiva,  4,  II. 

Khorasan,  36,   107,   153. 

Khotan,  14,  113,  159,  164,  208. 

Kiang-su,    52. 

Kindness,  needed  by  missionary,  193. 

Kioto,   46. 

Kipling,  quoted,  181,  185,  212,  223. 

Kiria,   14. 

Kitchener,  attitude  of,  toward  mis- 
sions, to  Moslems,  211. 

Kobe,  46. 

Konakry,  40. 

Koran,  7,  84,  100,  104,  105,  128,  165, 
174.  ^77- 

Kordofan,   148,  153,   196. 

Kota   Bharu,   37. 

Krapf,  76. 

Kuhistan,   36. 

Kulja,  4,   14. 

Kumm,  Dr.   Karl  W.,  26,  89,  116. 

Kurdistan,  66. 

Kwangsi,  53. 

Kwang-tung,  S3- 

Kwci-chau,  53. 


Lack,  of  men,  41;   of  vision,  59;  of 

workers,   60. 
Lacoste,  quoted,  7. 
Lamas,   87,   loi,    130,    132. 
Lamaism,  19,  126,  129,  132,  141. 
Landon,    Percival,    quoted,    67,    tt, 

112. 
Landor,  A.  H.  S.,  68. 
Laos,  23. 

Laotian  Bible,   196-197. 
Legend  of  creation,  125. 
Leonard,    Major,   quoted,  124,   134. 


INDEX 


257 


Mackay,    Kenneth,    quoted,    69,    109. 


Lesdain,  Comtesse  dc,  71. 

Lessons,  to  be  gained  from  old  so- 
cieties, 203. 

Lhasa,  21.  86.  87,  xc:,  iir,  115.  «4^. 
160.    164,    198;   footnote,   ^i. 

Liberia.    S. 

Linguists  needed,    195. 

Livingstone.  David,  69,  76,  317,  222, 
23a',   quoted,   61.    186. 

Livingstonia.    ijj. 

Lobnor,    15. 

Lombok  Islands.  34. 

London   Missionary  Society,   19,  206. 

Loneliness.  69. 

Longing  after  God,  136. 

Loyalty,    157,    184. 

Lull,   Raymond,  quoted,  220. 

Luristan,    36. 

Lut,  67. 

Lyall,  Alfred,  quoted,  58. 

Lying,   128,   136,  148. 

M 

Mad  Mullah,  of  Somaliland,  83. 
Madagascar,  38.  75. 
Madras  Decennial   Conference,  44. 
Madura,  3^. 

224. 
Magaa,   159. 
Maimachin,   19. 
Malaria,  74. 
Malaysia,  33,   126,    133,    135,    148,  212; 

population   of,   37. 
Manchuria,  4,  52. 

Marriage  in   Central  Asia,    114,   115. 
Marston,    Miss  A.    \V.,   quoted,    131. 
Martin,    F.   A.,   quoted,  94. 
Martvr,  Abdul  Karim,  218. 
Matthews,    Aaron,    quoted,    185. 
Mecca,  24,  25,  64,  82,  84,  104,  128,  147, 
160,     164,     198;     footnote,     161;     im- 
mortality   in,    115;    intolerance    in, 
85- 
Mecca-pointer,    7. 

Medical,     charms,     105;     missionar>', 
65.    193.    195;    missions,    208;    prac- 
tices, native,  105-106;  science,  need- 
ed, 106. 
Medina,  24,  25,  82,  84,   115. 
Menelik  II,  28. 
Merv,    12,    17. 
Meshed,    12,    115,    198. 
"Messeii^cr  of  God,"  quotation,  29. 
Meyer,  F.  B.,  quoted,  214. 
Micronesia,    106. 
Miller.  Dr.  W.  R.,  quoted,  173. 
Miracles,    148. 
Mission   comity,  44-45. 
Mission    stations,    concentration    of, 
45,    184;    in    Africa,    42;    perils    of, 
199. 
Missionaries,     adaptability    of,     190; 
as    representatives    of    Christ,    192; 
common  sense  needed  by,  200;  ex- 


M^o 


eluded  from  Bhutan,  75;  in  China, 
51;  in  India,  47;  in  Japan,  46; 
message  of,  191 ;  needed,  kind  of, 
185;  requirements  of.   185-189. 

Missionary  occupation  of  the  Chi- 
nese Empire.  50-54'.  o^  Sudan.   173. 

Missionary  Societies,  184;  in  unoc- 
cupied fields,   new.  203. 

Missions,  argument  for.  95;  begin- 
ning of,  2;  mean  warfare,  188; 
need  of,  183;  opportunity  for,  in 
Turkistan,    167;   progress  of,   2. 

Moffat,   Robert,  quoted,   120. 

Mohammed,  84;  hopelessness  of  his 
teachings,   122. 

Mohammedan    practices    in    Egypt, 

onasteries,    132;    Buddhist,    140;   of 
Tibet,   footnote,    142. 

Mongolia,  4,  14.  19.  21,  52,  55.  67,  70, 
101,  221. 

Mongols,  4,  loi,   154;  in  prayer,   154- 

Morality,  127. 

Moravian   mission   in   Tibet.   206. 

Moslems.  6.  23,  41,  104,  161,  178,  227; 
advance  in  Africa,  62,  174;  hatred 
of  Christians,  58;  in  China,  ^4;  in 
Malaysia,  34;  in  Somaliland,  28; 
library  of,  175;  political  authority 
of,  79;  Raymund  Lull,  missionary 
to,  22a 

Mosques,  6,  165. 

Mosquitoes,  68,  69,  74. 

Mott,    T.    R.,    quoted,  61. 

Muir,  John  R.,  quoted,   152,   188. 

Mulaya,  5. 

Mullahs,  146,  149,  161,  165,  194;  illit- 
eracy of,   146. 

Murray,  Andrew,  quoted,  214, 

Muscat,  24,  64,  192,  205,  224. 
Myers,   F.   VV.   H.,  quoted,   182. 

N 

Nagasaki,   46. 

Nagoya,  46. 

Nasrany,  86. 

Native  medical  practices,   106-108. 

Native   States   in   India,   75. 

Need   of   Central   Asia,    footnote,   16. 

Neesima,  quoted,  226. 

Neglect,  59,  90,  155;  in  China,  52;  in 
India,    48,    49;    in    Japan,    46;    of 
church,    183;  of  provinces  in  Ara- 
bia, 24- 
24, 

Nejd,  25,  64,  65. 

Nejran,  65,   159. 

Nepal,  21,  75,  133.  221;  Buddhism  in, 
21 ;  why  missionaries  do  not  enter, 

New  fields.  203. 
New  Guinea,   137. 
New   stations,    184. 
Nias,    135. 
Niebuhr,  64. 
Niger,  5,  27,  38,  309. 


258 


INDEX 


ission,  42, 


Nigeria,   5,   25,  27,  41,    166,   173,    175; 

northern,  26;  peoples  of,  133. 
Nile,   12,  26,  62,  196,  215. 
Nirvana,   130. 
Is'o.de,  64. 
Nomads,   11,   125. 
Non-Christian  religions,  126. 
North    Africa,   41. 
North  Africa  Mis 
Nubas,  25. 
Nyasaland,  5. 

O 

Obstacles,  185;  to  entrance  of  mis- 
sionaries in  Africa,  75. 

Oceania,  196. 

Okayama,  46. 

Oman,  25,  36,  225. 

Omdurman,    211. 

Om  Mani  Padme  Hum,  130. 

Opportunities,  a  stimulus,  220; 
among  Moslems,  178;  lost,  156; 
165,  228;  present,  183. 

Opposition,  political,  in  Africa,  76; 
in  Arabia,  79;  in  Siberia,  77;  to 
Christian  missions,  78-79. 

Oran,  5,  41. 

Orenburg,  177. 

Orenburg-Tashkend  Railway,  17. 

Organization  of  a  pioneer  mission, 
200. 

Oriental  Christianity,  127. 

Osaka,  46. 

Oxus,  12,  16,  17. 


Paganism,   degradation  of,    135,    171. 

Palawan,  35. 

Palestine,  i, 

Palgrave,    128. 

Papua,  63,  68,  74,  108;  people  of,  125; 
social  conditions  in,  98. 

Passion   of  a  homeless   Christ,   222. 

Patience,  227. 

Patteson,    Bishop,  219. 

Paul,  91,  185,  201,  221,  225;  his  ambi- 
tion, 2;  his  indictment,  97. 

Pennell,  Dr.  T.  L.,  quoted,  8,  107, 
158,   184;   Mrs,   T,   L.,   quoted,    189. 

Persia,  12,  164. 

Persian  Gulf,  36,  169,  205, 

Personal   religion,    127. 

Peshawar,    12,   80,  207. 

Petition  of  Tibetans,  footnote,  88. 

Philippine   Islands,   35,    196. 

Physical,  barriers  being  eliminated, 
74;  obstacles,  61. 

Pioneer,  185;  must  catch  the  vision, 
191,  212. 

Political,  administration  in  Tibet, 
21 ;  hindrance  to  missionary  occu- 
pation in  Afghanistan,  81;  impor- 
tance of  Afghanistan,  163;  in  Balu- 
chistan, 13;  in  Egypt,  footnote, 
76;  in  western  Asia,  168;  interfer- 
ence,   footnote,    75;    objections    to 


missions,  75;  situation,  in  Central 
Asia,  80. 

Politics,  168,  169,  176. 

Polyandry,   116,  119. 

Polygamy,    116,    ii8,   119,   127, 

Population,  13;  of  Central  Asia, 
footnote,   11;    Dutch    East   Indies, 

^33. 

Portuguese  territory,  39;  East  Af- 
rica, 5;  Guinea,  s,  40. 

Post,   Dr.   George  E.,  quoted,   194. 

Poverty,  in  Arabia,  102, 

Prayer,  for  unoccupied  fields,  poem, 
55 ;  of  Asaph,  150;  of  Mongols,  154. 

Prayer-flags,  19. 

Prayer-wheels,   101,  129. 

Presbyterian   Church   of  the   U,   S., 

Priests,  Buddhist,  140,  148;  buried 
alive  in  Tibet,  143-144;  in  Tibet, 
130;  immorality  of,  141,  147. 

Prisoners,  torturer  to,  110. 

Prisons,  in  Tibet,  in. 

Progress,  economic,  100;  of  Christi- 
anity, 177;  of  missions,  60. 

Protection,  gained  from  Koran,  105. 

Protestant  missions,  in  China,  50. 

Protestants,  in  Japan,  45. 

Provinces,    of    China,    missionari** 

Punishments,  94,  108,  no. 
Q 

Qualifications    needed,    by   mission- 
aries, 186. 
Quetta,  13,  172,  194. 


Races,  capacity  for  religion,  124;  dy- 
ing out,  154;  of  Central  Asia,  8-10; 
waiting  for  Gospel,  6. 

Ragyabas,   112. 

Railway,  74,  165,  166,  168,  178;  in 
Africa,  27,  40;  in  Arabia,  86;  in 
Indo-China,  23;  missions  near, 
209;  Orenburg-Tashkend,  17;  Rus- 
sian, footnote,  17. 

Rajputana,  48. 

Raquette,  G.,  quoted,  167. 

Reasons  for  missions,  119,  120. 

Red  Sea,  25. 

Regaining  lost  territory,  158. 

Regions  Beyond  Missionary  Union, 
39- 

Reinforcements,  183,  184;  for  mis- 
sion stations,  207. 

Religion,  168;  capacity  of  races  for, 
124;  desire  for  universal,  122. 

Religions,  non-Christian,  126;  unsat- 
isfactory, 130. 

Religious,  intolerance,  82;  tyranny, 
142. 

Reproach  of  neglect,  183, 

Resources  of  Afghanistan,  footnote, 
12. 

Riadh,  64. 


INDEX 


259 


Riinhtrt,    Dr.     Susie,    im;    quoted, 

Rio  de  Oro,  5.  ^7. 

Risks,    on    mission    fields,    footoote, 

iOO. 

Ritual  of  Lamaism,   i^. 

Rivalry   of  England   and    Russia,   17. 

Roba'-el-Khali.   64. 

Rochfs,    Lron.  85. 

Rockhill,   W.   VV..   quoted,   130. 

Roman  Catholic  Church,  28.  39,  206. 

Roof  of  the  world,   10;  hardships  of. 

Routes,    15;    new,   to    Europe,    foot- 
note, 62. 
Russia,    4,    10,    78,    166;    in    Central 

Asia,   advance   in,    163,    164;   policy 
in,  81 ;   population  of,   16,   17. 
Russian  Turkistan,  4,  6,  11,   103,   114; 
without   missionaries,   208. 

S 

Sacrament,  religious,  of  pagans,  139. 

Sacrifices  of   Buriats,   138. 

Sahara,  4,  5.  70,  82,   159. 

Samarai,   74. 

Samarkand.    17,    164,   208. 

Sana,  35,  65,   159,  224. 

Sarts,   7. 

Savages,  spirituality  of,  124- 

Scandinavian   Alliance   Mission,  ao6. 

Scenery  of  Baluchistan,  13. 

Schlegel,  quoted,    145. 

Scholars,  needed,   195. 

Scriptures,  in  Chinese,  50;  in  Tibet, 
88;  translation,  41. 

Seetzen,  64. 

Sell,  Canon  E.,  quoted,  152. 

Semi-centennial  of  Protestant  mis- 
sions in  Japan,  45. 

Sendai,   46. 

Senegal,    166. 

Senegambia,  5,  40. 

Senussi,  62,  89. 

Shackelton,   Sir  Ernest,  215. 

Shamanism,   126,  140.  148. 

Shaving  of  the  head,  161. 

Shen-si,  53. 

Shilluks,  25. 

Siberia,  8,  18,  63,  77,  103,  126,  138; 
Bible  in,  198;  steppes  ol,  10. 

Sierra  Leone,   109. 

Sikkim,  21,  71. 

Sindh,    49. 

Singapore,   38. 

Single  men,  needed,  202. 

Sirguja,  75. 

Situation,    missionary,    to-day,   2-3. 

Slavery,  in  Africa,  99,  127;  in  Ara- 
bia, 99. 

Smyth,  Bishop  William,  quoted,  190- 
101. 

Soba,    159. 

Social  conditions,  114,  128;  degrada- 
tion, 153;  evils,  97;  problem  of  un- 
occupied fields,  95. 


Sociological  problem,  95. 

Socotra  Islands,  35,  159- 

Solomon   Islands,   137. 

Somaliland,  5..  ^8,  77.  83,  102,  211, 
221;   women   in,    116. 

Southern  Assam,  47. 

Speer,   Robert  E..  quoted,  228. 

Spencer,   Herbert,   quoted,  123. 

Spirits,   worship  of,    140. 

Spiritual    destitution,    153. 

Spirituality,    124. 

Spurgeon,   Charles,  quoted,  220. 

States  of   India,    75. 

Stein,    quoted,    68. 

Steinthal,   F.   \V.,  quoted,   171. 

Steppes,    Siberian,    10. 

Stigand,    Captain,   71. 

Student  volunteers,  228. 

Strategic  importance  of  the  unoccu- 
pied fields,   153,   161. 

Students,    in    Bokhara,   6. 

Sudan,  25  26,  62,  74,  77,  159,  173.  175. 
196,  209,  221,  225;  attempts  to  es- 
tablish missions  in  central,  209, 
210;  central,  26;  Egyptian,  a6; 
western,  26;   women  in,   116. 

Sudan  Interior   Mission,  210. 

Sudan  United  Mission,  211. 

Sulu   Archipelago,  35, 

Sumatra,  33,  83. 

Sumbawa,   34. 

Superstition,  3,   103,   119,  140- 

Surgery,  107. 

Svenska  missions-forbundet,  78. 

Swahelis,   160. 

Swedish  Mission  in  Turkistan,  15. 

Syr  Daria,   12. 

Syria,  36,    127. 

Sze-chwan,  53. 


Tailgan,  138. 

Taiz,  64,  8s. 

Takhla   Makan,  67. 

Tamerlane,  162. 

Tanganyika,    Lake,   39. 

Tangye,   H.   Lincoln,  quoted,  25. 

Tartars,   161. 

Tashkend,    17,   164,  208. 

Task,  of  the  pioneer,  199;  greatness 
of  the,  226. 

Tate,  G.  P.,  quoted,  69. 

Tawi-tawi,   35. 

Teima,   82. 

Telegraph,  in  Africa,  40;  in  Malay- 
sia,  37. 

Temperature   in  Baluchistan,  70. 

Temple,    132. 

Terjuman,  177. 

Terror  of  heathenism,   135. 

Thirst,   69. 

Tibet,  2,  4,  6,  14,  20,  21,  22,  52,  66, 
67,  82,  86,  87,  100,  103,  III,  116,  126, 
129,  131.  «32.  142.  »S3.  '64,  188,  19s. 
206,  217,  221;  Buddhism  in,  128; 
exploration    in,    87;    hardships    in. 


26o 


INDEX 


footnote,  67;  immorality  in,  119; 
isolation  of,  20;  languages  of,  foot- 
note, 19s;  plea  for,  216;  women 
of,  9,  118. 

Tibetans,  character  of,  8. 

Timbo,  40. 


ah,  75. 


Timor, 

Tippera 

Tisaall,    Charles   E,    G.,    quoted,   37. 

Togoland,  5. 

Tokio,   45,   46. 

Tonking,    23. 

Torture  of  the  fanah,  no. 

Trade   routes,    12,    15,    19. 

Translation  of  the  Bible,  195. 

Transportation  facilities,   17. 

Travels    alone,    who   travels    fastest, 

quotation,   182. 
Trengganu,   36,    37. 
Tropics,  health  in,  7^. 
Trotter,  I.  L.,  quoted,  214. 
Tuaregs,  82,  159,  160. 
Tucker,  Bishop,  of  Uganda,  171. 
Tugvvell,  Bishop,  210. 
Tunis,   42,  82. 
Turfan,    10,    164,   208. 
Turkish  government,  79;  in  western 

Asia,  168. 
Turkistan,    12,    113;     Chinese,   7,    14, 

103;  Russian,  4,  103,  114. 

U 

Udaipur,  75. 

Uganda,  5,  62,  71,  133. 

Unfinished  task  in  China,  50. 

United  Presbyterians,  210. 

United  Provinces,  47,  48. 

Unity  of  race,   123. 

Unoccupied  fields,  advance  into, 
177;  cause  of,  61;  Central  Asia, 
4;  desire  to  enter,  225;  division  of, 
,■>;  government  lacking,  108;  in 
Africa,  25,  209;  in  first  century,  i, 
149;  in  Malaysia,  33-35;  near  mis- 
sion stations,  43;  reasons  for  occu- 
pation of,  156-159;  social  problems 
of,    94;     strategic    importance    of, 

Upoto,   42. 

Upper  Senegal,  27, 


Urgency  of  task,    i,    165,   171,  228. 
Urumtsi,   4. 


Vambery,  A.,  quoted,    128. 
Van  Ess,  John,  quoted,  189. 
Vassal,    Gabrielle    M.,    quoted,    140, 

154. 
Veil  of  Tuaregs,  160. 
Verses  of  protection,   105. 
Vischer,   Hanns,  quoted,  83,  89. 
Von  Wrede,  64. 

W 

Wadai,  5,  26,  62. 

Wady  Dawasir,   65. 

Wakhan,   12. 

Walker,  H.  W.,  quoted,  98. 

Walwar,  117. 

Warneck,  J.,  quoted,  12,  134,  176. 

VVellsted,    64. 

West  Africa,  38. 

Western  Asia,  66. 

Western   Sudan,  26. 

Weston,  Dr.   Frank,  quoted,   172. 

White  men  and  tropics,  footnote,  74. 

White,  J.    Claude,  22. 

Williams,  John,  219. 

Wingate,  Colonel  G.,  quoted,  89, 
152,  164,   19s,  202. 

Witch  doctor,   105. 

Wolfe,    Joseph,   80.' 

Women,  degradation  of,  113,  115;  ia 
Central  Asia,  114-117;  in  Somali- 
land,  116;  in  Sudan,  116;  in  Tibet, 
9,  102,  118. 


Yarkand,  4,  14,  15,  60,   loi,  208. 
Yemen,  64,  65,  79,  159,  205. 
Yokohama,    45-46. 
Younghusband,  Col.,  67,  87,  106,  154, 

Yun-nan,    53. 

Z 
Zaka  Kheyl  tribe,   148. 
Zambesi,  39. 
Zem  Zem,   well  of,  105. 
Zungaria,   4,    14. 
Zwemer,  Peter  J.,  192. 


*f. 


